Westward Bound
by mega.natural
Summary: A lost female inu youkai named Fuko stumbles into the path of the Lord of the West on her quest to find answers. His instincts urge him to claim her, but how will that be possible when she doesn't know the meaning of the word? Sesshomaru/OC intense citrus and violence
1. The Blue Blur!

**Okay! So this is a story I just keep thinking about, so… Okay! This is set after the series end, but before Kagome comes back, if she does, I don't know. I've never seen the last season or read the last manga, so I can't really talk about that much, but it's not really about that anyway and I'm also claiming artistic license. So there. **

**Also, I don't own Inuyasha. You knew that.**

Miko- priestess. Hanyou- half-demon. Inu- dog. Ookami- wolf. Neko- cat. Ryu- dragon. Kitsune- fox. Youkai- demon/demon aura. Daiyoukai- great demon. Moko moko- Sesshomaru's fluffy fluffy tail.

* * *

**Chapter I: The Blue Blur!**

"Kaede!" A young fox demon burst into the old woman's hut, panting and frantic.

Kaede looked up slowly from the brew she was mixing, a soothing tonic for the new mother just down the road in the village she protected. For a split second, she didn't recognize the fox demon standing spread-eagle in her doorway, but one glance into his face set her to rights again. The old priestess patted her breast to calm her heart. It seemed that every time she looked at the boy, he had changed from the last glance! But, she knew, that was the way of demon children. Shippo had been growing quickly in the past year and was easily three feet taller than he had been not so long ago, but Kaede didn't believe his face would ever change or harden, despite the loses he'd suffered.

"Shippo." The old woman turned back to prod the fire under her pot. "What has ye home before midnight? I thought ye were out breaking the village girls' hearts?"

The lad turned pink, but then flung his arms out violently as if to fling his embarrassment away. "Please, Kaede! There's no time to tease me now! A really strong demon aura is approaching the southern farmlands! It's coming right for us!"

Kaede got to her feet as quickly as she could and began gathering her weapons. "Why didn't ye say so, boy?!"

"I just did," the fox demon muttered petulantly, but then he seemed to regain his lost urgency. "I'll go get your horse! Some of the warriors already left-"

"What?" Kaede snapped. "Do they even know what they run toward? The fools! Hurry, Shippo!"

"Yes, Grandma Kaede!"

In moments, the old woman was astride her horse and on the outskirts of the village, giving instructions to the remaining guards. Just as she turned to go, she shouted over her shoulder. "Stay here, boy! Help protect the village!"

The young fox demon took a few running steps after her. "But shouldn't I be where the fighting is?"

"No! Ye may be a demon, but you are still a child! Stay here!"

"But-"

"Boy, do as I say!" When Shippo deflated and turned away from her, the old woman shook her head in frustration. The boy had poor self-esteem, and though she was impatient to be on her way, she didn't want to hurt him, so she softened her voice. "Stop that pouting. Ye are not useless, Shippo. Should I fail to stop the demon at the farmlands, you and the remaining guards need to protect the people of this village. Do you understand?"

The red-haired boy faced her and she felt his youkai energy spike as he nodded resolutely. "Okay, Grandma Kaede, I'll protect them! I promise!"

The old woman wheeled her horse around and charged toward the south with thirty or so warriors following after. As soon as she left his sight, Shippo's aura waned and he clinched his small fists in worry. He wanted to go with her! If something happened to her, he'd be all alone! He quickly shook this thought away and ran to the nearest hut, jumping onto the roof so he could see farther. Though he could tell the really strong aura hadn't yet reached the farmlands, he couldn't really tell how close it was, so he needed to watch in case Kaede… in case..

Furiously, he rubbed his eyes to get the dust that must be in them out. He shook himself. "I gotta keep it together! Gotta keep it together!"

He stood on the wood-panel roof, keeping watch and listening to the villagers prepare themselves for whatever was to come. No one called to him while he watched, maybe because they thought he was concentrating, but he really wished someone would stop and talk to him! He couldn't take all this waiting and waiting! He'd kept his eyes trained on the south for so long, they stared to ache. The aura he'd felt before was just on the edge of the farmlands, and it was still heading for the village, only slower now. Had Kaede made it there yet? Was she fighting? Shippo sniffed the breeze blowing against his face, but didn't smell any blood. Maybe the aura would turn back before it met the village warriors. Maybe no one would have to fight today. Again, Shippo had to rub the dust from his eyes. If only Inuyasha were here! If he were here, Shippo wouldn't have to worry about Kaede fighting demons! But the boy shook himself and trained his eyes on the south again. He knew he couldn't rely on Inuyasha, he was never around when they needed him anymore. Shippo knew he had to be the one to protect everyone now. "Gotta keep it together! Gotta keep it together!"

Just then, the aura he was sensing shrank, as if it were a balloon losing more and more air, until it seemed to disappear. For a second, the young kitsune couldn't believe his luck. Kaede had defeated it! Shippo grinned, glad that he must have misjudged the demon's power. "Well, that was nerve racking!" He sighed and shook his head, still smiling to himself as he leapt from the roof back onto the dirt road. "I was worried for nothing!" He started trotting toward the south, wondering what kind of demon it had been. He laughed to himself, nearly drunk with relief. Maybe its carcass would be in the field and he could stand on it to impress the girls in the village. He _was_ the one to sense it first, after all, and he'd saved everyone by sounding the alarm...

He'd barely taken ten steps to the south when the aura appeared again, not nearly a big, but moving a thousand times faster. He didn't even have time to think before it had crossed most of the farmlands, and in the distance he spotted a blue blur heading right for him. Horrified he stumbled back, turning toward the village, looking for the other guards. "It's coming!" He shouted. "Everybody! The demon is coming! It's-!"

**Here.** He thought, as he looked over his shoulder. In the second he'd turned away, the blur in the distance had reached the edge of the fields and the youkai aura was now not only something he could sense, he could_ feel _it touching his skin. He only had another second before it would be right in front of him. The boy didn't know what to do! He couldn't think passed the fact that it was _here_, past Kaede and the others, with meant that they hadn't been able to stop it, had barely even slowed it down. He wanted to rub his eyes again, but there was no time.

Shippo stood his ground in the middle of the road leading into the village and stretched out his arms, standing between the approaching demon and his home. "Halt!" He shouted, trying his hardest to sound scary, powerful, and capable. It came out sounding like a squeak.

But the demon stopped anyway.

Shippo stared, for a long second in stunned silence. The blur had concealed a female inu youkai only a couple feet taller than him, wearing a blue silk kimono that barely came to her knees and was tied with a wide pink-and-red striped ribbon that was fashioned into a large bow that rested against her back. The demon's flamboyant appearance alone wouldn't have shocked him so bad, but then he looked up at her face. She had markings, two blue, ragged stripes on each cheek. Her dark-brown bangs hung over her brow and into her green-eyes and her long hair was in a braid that almost reached past her bottom, but what caught Shippo's eye was the dog ears nestled in the hair on top of her head. They were just like Inuyasha's-only they were a different color- and much bigger. When the ears twitched, Shippo's focus came back to the moment and he noted the wicked double-headed spear lashed to her back and gulped. Size and appearance didn't count for much with demons, and just because she was a dog demon didn't mean she wasn't going to try and slaughter everyone! Shippo tensed his body, and bared his fangs. He wouldn't let that happen.

"Y-you're not welcome here!" he shouted, taking what he felt was a threatening fighting stance. "Leave or face my wrath!"

The female demon titled her head to the side and began walking toward him.

Shippo trembled and squeaked. "I'm- I'm warning you!"

When she kept coming, he gritted his teeth and cocked back his arm. "FOX FIRE!" He shouted, and sent a ball of magic flames spiraling toward her.

She caught it easily, and the flames evaporated in her hand, not even leaving a mark.

Shippo stumbled back, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his next weapon. "SPINNING TOP!" He shouted, flinging it.

Again, the demon plucked his weapon out of the air, which would have been okay this time, but the top didn't transform! He felt like he was going to faint, but he didn't run away. Maybe if she took long enough ripping him to shreds, most of the villagers would have time to get away.

"St-stay back! I'm w-warning you!" He shouted, waving his arms frantically, shutting his eyes so he wouldn't have to see his death coming.

The female youkai got right in front of him. "Hey, calm down, kid. I'm not going to hurt you. I just need directions."

Shippo shuddered, squeezing his eyes tighter shut. It was worse when they pretended they weren't going to kill you. "I said, st-stay back!"

"No, really. I just wanted to ask a couple of questions." He felt her get even closer. "Do you live here?"

He growled.

"Was that a yes?" He heard her sigh. "You're scared stiff, aren't you? Okay, what do you want me to do? Do you want my weapon? Will that make you feel better?" He heard some rustling and felt her back away.

Shippo dared to open one eye, and then the other. The female demon had laid her spear on the ground in front of him and taken a few steps back. It didn't have any blood on it- in fact, now that he thought of it, she didn't smell like blood at all. The young fox demon started to reach for the spear, but then narrowed his eyes, remembering the blur that she had been. "Back up some more." He ordered. She did, and when he thought she was far enough, he grabbed the spear. The power pulsing through the weapon barley fazed him- he'd picked up Tetsusaiga before- but he recognized that the female demon had just handed over a very powerful weapon.

"Better?" She asked. "I just had some quick questions, then I'll leave."

Shippo looked up at the demon, saw her ears again, looked into her eyes, and suddenly didn't feel afraid at all. Whoever this demon was, or wherever she'd come from, she wasn't like most he'd come in contact with. She really wasn't going to kill anybody, which meant- "What happened to the warriors in the fields? You didn't hurt them? Didn't you have to get past them?"

"What, that mob of people with weapons? That had the old miko with them?" Shippo nodded and the demoness laughed and rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "They seemed a little hostile. I didn't think they were likely to talk to me, so I just went around them. They started chasing me, though, so they'll be here soon."

The boy sighed with relief. "You swear not to hurt anyone?"

She tapped her index and middle fingers to her forehead once in a strange salute. "Scout's honor."

He wrinkled his nose in confusion. "What?"

"I swear." She said with a smile, and Shippo smiled back.

Not long after that friendly exchange, the old miko arrived at her hut and slowly dismounted her horse with the help of one of the warriors, before dismissing him so he could go check on his family. All of those who had gone to fight in the farmlands had been relived and frankly surprised to find their homes and families intact, but none were more surprised than Kaede to hear what had happened after the demon had gotten past her wards and her warriors. Shippo had subdued the demon and made it agree not to attack the village? Kaede shook her head, not believing the story the guard had told her for a second. The aura she'd sensed out in the farmlands had been powerful, not the strongest she ever had the misfortune of encountering, but more than young Shippo could handle. Something strange was going on and the old woman was not at all sure what she would find inside her hut, where she could feel the two youkai auras.

She pulled aside the curtain covering her doorway and snorted. It seemed that if they didn't intend to destroy her village, visiting demons always found a way to eat her food. Shippo was sitting across from the demon, smiling and offering more tea, more rice, more dried fruit and meat, acting as if there was nothing to fear, and the demon sipped from her cup and nibbled from Shippo's proffered plate as if she was perfectly at home in a human hut. Kaede shook her head and moved over to check the brew over her fire. It was still quite warm, which was good.

"Hi, Grandma Kaede!" Shippo called around a mouth full of rice when he noticed her.

Kaede blinked with surprise when the female dog demon stopped eating the rice and bowed to her. The old woman supposed she was too accustomed to Inuyasha's rudeness to expect any different from an inu youkai. "Hello, Lady Priestess," the demon said. "Please excuse me for avoiding you earlier. You and your friends didn't seem in the mood to talk."

"Yes, well." The miko murmured as she stoked the fire under her tonic. "Most demons of ye ilk aren't in the mood to talk either."

Kaede heard a soft sigh from the demon. "I get that a lot in these lands. It seems demons around here don't respect life so much as in other places."

"And which other places do ye speak of?" The priestess asked suspiciously, turning to face her.

The demon shrugged. "Here and there. I've found pockets of peace in many places, not a great number of them, but they exist."

Deciding to be direct, Kaede asked, "What be ye purpose here, demon?"

Shippo piped up, "She's looking for Inuyasha!"

The old woman felt a small amount of alarm. It was silly, the hanyou could take care of himself, but she felt protective of him and didn't want to send trouble his way. "Why would ye be searching for Inuyasha?"

The demon smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of her head. "I'm not really looking for this _Inuyasha_ everyone's talking about. I'm looking for _any_ dog demon, and every human I ask around here seems to think I should find this guy. They think I look like him, something about my ears. Apparently, he's very popular."

Kaede frowned. "Why would ye be searching for other dog demons? Don't ye know any ye self?"

The demon shook her head slowly. "No, Lady Priestess. I wasn't raised with dog demons. I don't know any, and I'm trying to find one in hopes that they will know something of my family."

"That is a very strange tale, demon." The old woman said dubiously.

"Kaede!" Shippo wailed. "Please, don't me mean to her! She really doesn't know any dog demons. She comes from the Far North."

Kaede frowned. It was widely held that there were no dog demons in the Far North, and that they would never go there, so that begged the question of how this particular dog demon got there in the first place. Looking at Shippo's face, though, it was hard to continue an interrogation, so she played along. "If ye be in search of information about ye lineage, Inuyasha is hardly the one to help ye. He is a half-demon, and he too was raised away from most other dog demons. I'd wager he would know as much as ye seem to. The dog demons of the West would be a better choice."

"The West, right." The demon said, assuming a contemplative pose. "I've heard that from a few people now. Head west, they say. As if that's the easiest thing to do in the world."

"Isn't it?" Shippo asked.

The demon shook her head, cheeks growing a little pink. "It would be, if I weren't me…"

"Explain, demon." Kaede said, turning back to her fire.

She sighed. "I lack a sense of direction. It's worse than that, really. If someone points me north, I will eventually be heading south, and if someone points me west, I will eventually arrive at the eastern sea. My feet tend to lead me in circles, and I never suspect that I'm heading the wrong way until I get to somewhere I've already been. I've tried everything I can think of to stay on track, but I always lose my way. I'm certain if I didn't have a sense of smell, I wouldn't have been able to find _this_ place at all. I met a traveling musician that visited here recently on the road and he told me to follow his scent back. I know that if it had rain since he'd been here, I would have been lost all over again."

"That's horrible." Shippo said, worried about his new friend. "How do you get home, if you are always lost?"

"I don't." She replied, swirling her tea. "I don't really have a home."

"But what about the friends you meet in your travels?" Shippo said nervously. "How would you ever visit them?"

The dog demon smiled and took something from her robe. "Here."

Shippo took a rock out of her hand and inspected it. To his surprise, it pulsed with magic, _fox_ magic. "What does it do?"

The demon frowned at him. "Don't you know?"

Shippo squirmed with embarrassment. "Um, uh, yeah! I know!" She titled her head as she looked down at him, and he blushed and cringed. "N-no, I don't really know. I don't know a lot of fox magic. My dad didn't finish teaching me before he died."

"Oh." She said softly. "I'd thought as much from your attacks earlier." This made Shippo cringe again. She reached over and took the stone in order to show him the engraved symbol. "This is a summoning mark. If someone holds this stone and says 'Fuko!' it will send out a beacon that I can follow to whoever possesses the stone."

"Oh. What does 'fuko' mean," Shippo asked curiously.

She laughed. "That's my name!"

"Oh!" Shippo grinned and bowed. "Please excuse me, Fuko, in all the ruckus earlier, I didn't make introductions." The young fox demon stood and bowed again. "My name is Shippo the fox demon." He gestured to Kaede, who looked up from her tonic. "This is the priestess, Lady Kaede."

The demon got to her feet and bowed gracefully. "It's a pleasure to meet you both. I am Fuko, a dog demon from the North."

Shippo's tail was shaking in excitement. "It's nice to meet you, too, Fuko!"

Kaede sighed, and took the brew off the fire to cool. "Well, then. Shall we have some more tea while we talk?"

Once everyone was settled again, Shippo asked. "How do you know fox magic, Fuko?"

"As a child, I met a kitsune youkai who taught me all that he knew, and since then, I've been teaching myself, with a little help now and then."

"You… you can teach yourself?" Shippo asked in wonder.

"You can teach yourself a lot of things, as long as you know the basics." Fuko, looked Shippo over and nodded. "That fox fire you use is a big part of those basics. If you knew a little more, practice and imagination would be all you needed to make yourself a pretty advanced magic user."

"I can transform, too!" Shippo said proudly.

"Well!" She said with a laugh. "That does take a little more skill. Tell me, when you do it, is it just illusion, or can you do things that you couldn't otherwise?"

Shippo thought about it. "I can make myself a balloon or a bird and fly…" Shippo offered hesitantly.

"That's good." Fuko said encouragingly. "Now if you had someone to teach you the finer details of fox magic-"

"You could teach me, couldn't you?" Shippo asked, jumping up.

Kaede looked toward the female youkai and watched as she seemed to consider it. "Well, I suppose I could, but I don't know. My power isn't like yours. Some of the higher level magic I can do isn't exactly fox magic, because I don't have the right kind of energy to do it the same way a fox demon would, just as when a monk or a priestess makes a barrier, they don't make it the same way a demon would." Fuko looked over to the old woman for conformation. "Right?"

"Yes." Kaede said. "That is correct."

"Will you teach me, Fuko?" Shippo squeeze his hands together under his chin and begged. "I want to be stronger, so I can protect my village." When she didn't immediately agree, his eyes grew wide and his lower lip pouted, his tail swirling invitingly. The boy looked as adorable as demonly possible.

"Oooh…" Fuko seemed stricken by Shippo's puppy-dog eyes, and Kaede had to stifle a laugh. She had grown immune to the look, mostly, but it always worked on a newcomer. "Shippo… I don't know if the villagers would want me to hang around, even if it only took a few days to teach you."

Shippo quickly turned to Kaede. "The villagers would let Fuko stay if you said it was safe, Grandma Kaede."

"So they would, child, but how am I to know it _is_ safe?"

Shippo pouted harder. "Fuko wouldn't hurt anybody! Would you, Fuko?"

"No, I wouldn't." The demon said. "But how is she to know that for certain, Shippo? I can't expect someone who doesn't know me to vouch for me to an entire village."

Shippo flopped down into his seat again, growling and pulling his red hair with frustration. "Oooh! Ah, um! Uh! But what if- um! Oh!" The boy suddenly leapt to his feet again. "What if you made another necklace, Kaede? Like Inuyasha's? Then if Fuko tries to hurt anybody, you could stop her!"

Fuko's eyes had widened as she spoke. "Stop me how, exactly?"

Kaede shook her head. "The spell he speaks of wouldn't work on a full demon like ye, Fuko. Besides, I haven't the ingredients for subjugation beads."

Fuko whistled, impressed. "Subjugation beads, huh? But, don't those only work if the wearer has a strong tie to the user?"

"Indeed." Kaede murmured.

Shippo whined. "But- but…"

"But," Kaede said, sipping her tea casually. "I suppose, if Fuko was willing to wear a subduing spell while she was here, she could be allowed to stay and teach ye."

Much to Kaede's surprise, Fuko agreed instantly. "That sounds reasonable."

"Yes!" Shippo, now practically buoyant with happiness, leaped across the space between them and hugged Fuko. "Thank you, Fuko!"

"But what of ye search, dog demon?" Kaede asked, sputtering.

"I've been looking for years. What's a few more days to help out a little fox?"

Fuko ended up spending over two weeks in the village near the outskirts of the Forest of Inuyasha. In that short amount of time, Shippo learned several new tricks and improved greatly on the ones he already knew and Kaede couldn't find one reason to use the wooden bracelet she had fashioned to hold the subduing spell. By the first week's end, Kaede could tell the young kitsune had formed a special attachment to the female inu youkai- he followed her everywhere and brought her presents, like a flowers and smooth river stones. Shippo's instruction time went much more smoothly than even he expected, and it turned out that the boy was an avid student. Fuko encouraged him to write down what he could remember of her teachings every night so that, if he ran into problems with his magic later on, he could fall back on his notes. Sometimes, during his play with the village children, he'd turn toward Fuko- she was always about somewhere- and wave for no particular reason. The demoness would always happen to look up in time to see the gesture and wave back. By the end of the second week, the other children got over their shyness and would watch Fuko teach, especially when she was demonstrating something new, and some of the adults would greet Fuko warmly when they crossed paths. She reminded them all of Inuyasha, because of her ears, mostly- their personalities were certainly nothing alike- and also because of her goodness and strength. Many of the villagers grew accustom to begging favors and small chores in return for food or refreshments, and Fuko was happy to oblige. She had become a strange fixture in the village, if not loved by all, then quietly tolerated.

On the sixteenth day of her stay, Shippo woke feeling hopeful. Fuko seemed really happy here, and she was so nice that everyone liked her. Sometimes she could be a little weird, like when she insisted on sleeping on Kaede's roof on clear nights or when she suddenly jumped into the river flowing through the village for no reason or when she called him 'Po' as if his name wasn't short enough already, but she was sweet and smart and strong and pretty and so fast! Sometimes all he could do was gape at her, she was so fast! Faster than Inuyasha and Shippo's cat demon friend, Kirara, and the wolf demon, Koga, combined! One day, she'd put him on her back to take him to a nearby cliff-side so he could practice different types of aerial attacks and he was so dizzy when they got there that they had to take a break before they even began. Everything around them had gone streaky and nauseating when she ran, and Shippo just couldn't figure out how she avoided running into everything. She'd told him that she was just used to it, but he didn't know if anyone could get used to moving like that.

Shippo hopped out of the hut and stretched his aching body. With his new training regiment, he seemed to be achy all the time, but Fuko had explained that all his activities were simply exacerbating his growing pains, whatever those were. All Shippo knew was that the ache was making him stronger, so he didn't complain. Much.

Turning around to face the hut, he looked up at the roof, and was only a little disappointed to see that Fuko was already gone. For the last few days, she'd been waking early to help the old ladies of the village wash clothes. Shippo wasn't sure why she liked to do this, seeing as the old ladies didn't give her any treats for it, but he supposed she liked to talk to them.

Almost unconsciously, Shippo looked toward the Forest of Inuyasha. Whenever Inuyasha visited the village, he came out of those trees, and it was always as the sun rose in the morning, after he spent the night by the Bone-Eater's Well.

For the little fox, thinking of the well always led to thinking about his absent friend, who was like mother and sister to him. Shippo furiously rubbed his eyes as tears threatened. Sure, he missed Kagome, but it wasn't like she was dead! She was just stuck on the other side of the well, over in her own time, probably doing 'homework' and eating ramen and just being okay. He only made himself mad when he cried over her, because it wasn't like she was dead! It wasn't like that at all!

After a few moments, when the sun finished rising and Inuyasha didn't appear, Shippo headed for the riverbed where the clothes were washed. Kaede was already out of the hut, probably gathering herbs in the forest, so breakfast wouldn't be for a while. He distracted himself from hunger and sadness by focusing on his new teacher. He wanted Inuyasha to meet her. Shippo knew his friend would love Kagome forever, but he thought that if he met someone like Kagome, someone who was sweet and smart and strong, he would want to stay in the village instead of going off to wherever he went for weeks at a time. Shippo convinced himself that this was likely. He knew that wherever Inuyasha went for those weeks he wasn't here didn't make him happy, so making a new friend might make him want to stay. If only he could figure out how to get his friends Miroku, Sango, and Kirara to live here instead of in Sango's old demon-exterminator village. He sighed, because he knew _that _wouldn't happen, and it was selfish of him to want that. He couldn't help it though, because what Shippo wanted most in the world was for his friends to stay together, even if they had to be apart.

"Hey, Shippo!" The young fox demon looked up, and waved to Fuko. She was walking toward him with a large basket of damp clothes in her arms. The old lady she was carrying it for, who was grandmother to two of his friends, waved to him, and then pointed Fuko toward her house, seeing as she had started to go the wrong way.

Shippo ran up to them just as Fuko was saying goodbye to the old lady and he said good morning to her before following Fuko away. "Well, what are we doing today, teacher?"

"Well." Fuko said glancing down at him and then away quickly, as she walked back toward Kaede's hut. "I was thinking we should just hang out today, Shippo." The boy grinned, about to suggest games and other activities, but Fuko continued. "I've actually taught you all I can for now. Until you're a little bigger, all there's left to do is practice what I've showed you and build up your stamina. Just focus on your notes and keep working, and you'll be quite the formidable little kitsune."

Shippo slowed, and then finally stopped, compelling Fuko to stop too.

Fuko continued to stare toward Kaede's hut, and also toward what she thought was the western horizon. When the little fox took a few steps forward and hugged her leg, she knew that he knew that she would be leaving tomorrow. Still, he begged. "Can't you stay a little while longer, Fuko? Until Inuyasha comes back?"

Fuko reached down and stroked a hand through the boy's hair, which she'd become used to doing. The little fox reminded her so much of her childhood friend that it ached, and it was part of the reason had she stayed so long in the first place. "I wish I could stay, Shippo, but I have to go. I've had to go for a couple of days, now."

The boy looked up at her tearfully. "But, why?"

Fuko smiled at him and knelt down beside him to hug him around his shoulders. He was stiff for a second, which was so like a little boy his age to behave that she laughed. "Remember that summoning stone I showed you when I first got here?"

Shippo sniffled and hugged her back. "Yeah…"

"Well," She said, drawing back. "Someone very special is calling me with one right now. I can feel it. I have to go, and then I must keep searching." Shippo shuddered in her arms and she kissed a tear from his cheek. "I'm going to give you one, you know. A summoning stone. We can make it together, today, right now. That way I can always find my way back to you, Shippo."

The boy bit his lip and sniffled, but nodded in agreement. "Okay… okay!" He seemed to brace himself, and Fuko felt his aura spike. "Alright. So- so, if I have my stone, I can call you whenever I want? And- and you'll come?"

"Absolutely!" She said. "The stone we'll make will work a little differently than the one I showed you before, but, yes."

"Okay…" The boy said with a shuddering sigh, and quickly squirmed out of her hug. "Where… where should we start, if we're making a summoning stone?"

"Breakfast." She said, and started toward Kaede's hut again. "We need the energy."

After breakfast, (during which Kaede revealed that she _already knew_ that Fuko was leaving tomorrow, which made Shippo have a mini-fit that included stomping his feet and demanding to be treated like an adult that could handle bad news maturely) Fuko led Shippo to the river where he picked out a rock. Though he was still feeling a little peeved about the fact that she told Kaede she was leaving _days_ before she told him, he wanted to make this summoning stone really special and he agonized over the choice for an hour while they waded around in the cool water. After he found an almost perfectly round stone and dubbed it his, they got out of the water and sunned themselves on the bank of the river before racing over to the grassy field where they practiced every day. She beat him, of course, but he liked that she never let him win in a serious contest. She'd told him at least a thousand times over the past two weeks that he had to earn victory.

"Now, hold up your rock for me, please."

Shippo held it up and watched with fascination as Fuko carved into it quickly and efficiently with her youkai energy, which was guided by her claw. Seeing her claw glow blue like that reminded him of Inuyasha's deadly half-brother, and Shippo felt a little frightened. "Now," She said. "Hold it tight and think of me." Shippo didn't find this hard at all, he thought of how they had trained together, and played together, and explored the village together, learning things about the people that lived here that Shippo never knew before. Fuko touched the stone after a few seconds, and it suddenly became hot to the touch, but then it cooled just as quickly. "There." She said simply.

Shippo opened her hand and looked at the glittering gold-colored sphere he'd pulled from the river. It felt heavier, maybe. It could have been his imagination. "Thank you, Fuko."

"Oh." She murmured. "It's really more for me than it is for you, Po. I would love to visit this place again. You and Kaede and the rest- we've all been so kind. And I never got to meet your Inuyasha."

Shippo looked up quickly. "The next time he comes back, if I called you…?"

"Of course- but, listen." Fuko placed her hand under his, bringing the stone to his eye level. "This _particular_ stone is just for you, Po. Like the other, if you hold it up and say 'Fuko!' I'll come to you, but that's for emergencies. If you're not being killed, then the proper thing to do with the stone is to carry it with you and think of me every now and then. I'll come then too, and I'll know I'm coming for a visit, not a fight. Remember, calling my name is for emergencies, and I'll come as fast as my legs will carry me. Carry the stone and think of me when you miss me too much to bear and want me to visit." She grinned at him. "Even if you don't miss me at all, don't forget to summon me sometime, okay?"

Shippo smiled widely and nodded. "Okay, Fuko."

Despite the fact that Shippo receive his summoning stone while the day was still young, nighttime approached on swift legs, almost seeming as fast as Fuko. Dinner went by without a whisper and the hours after dark spent playing shadow puppets against Kaede's wall slipped by without notice. It's wasn't until Kaede announced it was time to go to bed that Shippo realized that his last day was gone. Even though there was a crystal clear sky that night, Fuko slept inside, and that made Shippo feel better, but he still didn't sleep much. After a night of tossing and turning, the sight of the lightening sky outside made him queasy.

When Fuko was packed and preparing to leave, a group of villagers came and wished her well. "Goodbye! Goodbye! Good luck, Fuko!" They shouted, and all Shippo could do was give a little wave. When she started walking toward the west with the sun at her back, the little kitsune couldn't stay still anymore.

He ran after her. "Fuko!" He slowed to a stop beside her. "Um. Can I walk you to the cross roads?"

"Of course." She smiled at him and he took her offered hand without thinking.

He blushed when he heard some of the village boys jeering him. "Hey!" Shippo called over his shoulder. "Shut up, you guys!" Not wanting to seem like a sissy in front of them, Shippo let go of Fuko's hand until they were out of sight. "Sorry," He said, and took her hand again.

"I understand." She laughed at him, and Shippo didn't quite understand why he blushed harder.

He wanted to spend these last few minutes telling Fuko how much he would miss her, but- much to his chagrin- she distracted him with talk of the group of little girls in the village that liked to watch him practice his fighting. Shippo didn't know why everyone kept saying they had a crush on him, because they didn't! They were just being nice!

She gave him a kiss at the crossroads. It was just on the forehead, but it reminded him of what his mother would do, and that reminded him of Kagome. Tears came, and this time, Fuko wiped them for him. "I'll miss you." Fuko said. "You're a dear friend, Shippo."

"I'll miss you, too." He said, stiffly. This wasn't all he'd wanted to say, but he was afraid to tell her that he loved her, in case she really only felt affection for him.

Somehow, she knew. "I love you, Shippo."

He looked up at her, eyes shining with gratitude and love, a little toothy grin on his face, tail wiggling with joy, and pointed ears going bright pink at the tips. Fuko smiled and knew she would see him like this when she remembered this place.

"I-I l-l-ove you, t-too, Fuko!" He stammered, and she gave him another kiss, this time on the cheek.

"Summon me sometime, okay?"

"I promise!"

Shippo soon found himself waving goodbye to a blue streak in the distance, and then to nothing at all. He gave a small shuddering sigh when he lowered his hand, and quickly turned around to walk back to the village to wait. He had even more reason now, to hope that Inuyasha came home soon.

* * *

**Next time...**

**Chapter II: Crossed Paths and Crossed Swords**


	2. Crossed Paths and Crossed Swords

**Yay! I really appreciate your interest, everybody! Sorry for being a slow updater. I got a beta, ArcticPuppet, so expect big things. Okay, here's another chapter. **

**Also, I don't own Inuyasha. You knew that.**

Miko- priestess. Hanyou- half-demon. Inu- dog. Ookami- wolf. Neko- cat. Ryu- dragon. Kitsune- fox. Youkai- demon/demon aura. Daiyoukai- great demon. Moko moko- Sesshomaru's fluffy fluffy tail. Kappa- toad?

* * *

**Chapter II: Crossed Paths and Crossed Swords**

"Goodbye! Farewell! Good luck! We will miss you! Goodbye!"

Fuko lifted her hand and gave a small wave and a smaller smile before turning and running away. Of course, she didn't know where she was heading, but she didn't need to know. At that moment, all she wanted was to get away. Trees flashed passed her eyes and wind whipped her face as if in punishment, but the demon pressed on with an even more furious speed. After a few minutes of flawless, comforting movement, she couldn't hear those words anymore, nor smell the salt of her friends' tears. They were gone. She was alone. As she was meant to be.

Coming to the summit of a small mountain, the demon stopped abruptly and stood unmoving against the powerful gust of wind that rushed past her. Looking down at the green valley below reminded her clearly of the morning just ten days ago when she had done the exact same thing. Fuko thought back to the little fox demon that had been the one to say goodbye to her that day. She missed him, as she missed everyone that stole a little bit of her heart, and children like him made her feel it worse. But today, today her heartache's name was Miki, a human orphan, whom Fuko had guarded until they found a village that gave the girl reason to hope. This was many years ago. Miki lived in this little valley now, with her husband and children, who were darling little things that smelled strange and liked to pull ears. Fuko was happy for her, she truly was, but the intervening time between their meetings was getting longer and longer. It had been years since she'd seen them last, and the eldest child, who had taken his first steps between her hands and his mothers, was now taller than Fuko. Miki didn't need her demon protector anymore in this peaceful valley, and the inu youkai was left to miss the child that the woman had been.

Fuko turned away from the bittersweet view below her and crossed the peak, moving in a west-feeling direction. She wouldn't think of the not-so-distant future, of the moment Miki would call her and she would arrive to fine a stranger on her deathbed. She let that inevitability remain a vague understanding in the back of her mind. She would let today's pain stand alone, because, one way or another, children made her feel it worse.

But, of course, Fuko wasn't one to dwell on her misfortunes. She found it difficult to remain sad when she was running, and, because this comprised the majority of her time, she was never sad for very long. Most people liked her because of this. Grins were natural to her, smiles crept across her lips when she wasn't thinking, and laughter often floated on the wind that was whipped up in her wake. Even being eternally lost didn't dampen her high-spirited personality, and she thought it was probably a blessing that she loved new places. Whether on a sea of sand, waist deep in snow, surrounded by ancient trees, on the cusp of a mountain top, or in the middle of an ocean, where ever she found herself, a smile was the first expression to come to Fuko's face, usually followed by confusion, but first came her smile.

This usually helped keep strangers from running when she stopped to ask for directions, but not today, it seemed.

Seeing the familiar contours of a farm's field under her feet, Fuko stopped instantly and cast about for the farmer. About 50 yards to her left, a few humans continued to work, not having noticed her at all. Bracing herself for any sort of reaction, she gave a little shout and waved. "Hello! Excuse me!" First one and then the others straightened from their task and looked at her.

At first, they didn't seem to know what to make of her, with her colorful dress and her strange facial markings, but one- the same one that stood first- started shouting. "Demon! That's a demon!"

"Hey! Which way is west?" She called, but they were already starting to panic— she could see their eyes glazing over even at this distance— so she shrugged and continued in a west-feeling direction.

This process was repeated several times, once more in a field, twice on a road, three times at a village, before Fuko happened to stop on the edge of a swampy area. The smell was a little unpleasant, but she still smiled as she inspected her surroundings. She found them satisfyingly gloomy. It was a well fortified swamp, she noted. Trees stood abreast of each other, none more than six inches from the next, and thick brambles more than filled the empty space. The only way in that she could see was the tunnel. Limbs, nearly black with decay, formed the small tunnel into the marsh, which was dimed further by the moss and vines binding the overhead canopy together into a think, impenetrable blanket. This entrance seemed deliberately formed, and it followed that someone would be around to help Fuko on her way, so of course she stepped forward.

When the trees shifted and the entrance to the tunnel closed behind her, she stopped to turn and stare. That was odd. In fact, it was so odd that it was starting to seem vaguely familiar.

"Hello?" She smiled and called into the twilight of the tunnel.

Someone laughed, low and menacing. "You've walked right into my trap, you silly dog. Run before I crush you!"

Fuko titled her head to the side, sensing an aura directly ahead. "You seem familiar. Do I know you?"

The laughter came again, just a tad higher in pitched than last time. "You know me only as demise personified! Tremble before me, lowly cur! Leave while you can!"

Fuko's left ear twitched. "Rodney?"

The laughter choked off and there was a cold silence. "…No."

Fuko's right ear twitched. "Rodney?"

Silence. "…No."

Fuko took a step forward. "Rod-"

"Yes! It's me, damn it!" A male raccoon-dog in a black-and-white striped jacket leapt out the gloom. "How many times have I told you that my name is Roudane? Ruu-dan-eeh!"

Fuko shrugged at the shorter demon. "That's what I said—Rodney."

He face-planted, which made Fuko smile. When he stood back up, he demanded hotly. "What are you doing here?"

"Talking to you." She quickly answered.

The raccoon-dog clamped his paws over his little ears, grimaced in frustration, and snarled. "Why have you come?"

"To ask for directions."

"Leave! Get out of my territory!" He shouted.

"Which way is west?" She asked politely.

"Back the way you came!" He howled.

Fuko reached over, gripped him by the scruff of his neck, and shook him up and down rapidly, which, she found, was an efficient way to get directions from lesser demons.

"That way! That way!" He wailed, pointing straight off into the bramble and muck of the dense swampy forest.

Fuko dropped him. "That's due-west?"

"Yes." He hissed.

"Thank you, Rodney."

Fuko ran, unheeding of the pure destruction she wrought as she tore through the bramble, ecstatic to be sure of her direction.

The raccoon-dog known as Rodney stared after her, drooping to the ground as the female youkai demolished his carefully cultivated swamp fortress, as she had done every time she found him. "Why me?" He whined, and tromped off to find another place to live.

()()()()()()()

The fluttering wings in the periphery of Rin's sight caught her attention and held it. She froze, not daring to turn her head, and waited. The small human girl was rewarded when the delicate creature floated closer. She didn't blink. It came closer. She didn't breathe. It alighted on her wrist.

For an infinite moment the pretty creature rested with the utmost trust on her skin, and Rin slowly turned, trying to move so that her wrist would be visible to the daiyoukai sitting against the tree behind her. "Lord Sesshomaru!" She whispered-screamed. "Loooooook!"

Sesshomaru, the Great Demon Lord of the Western Lands glanced at the insect crawling along Rin's wrist and nodded, before letting his graze drift again. His concentration was disturbed barely a second later when Rin let out a wild shriek and began chasing the fluttering flash of color that was now escaping on the breeze. Sesshomaru watched, considering recapturing the creature for his charge, but didn't. Rin needed to run out the restless energy that threatened to bubbled over into the night and prevent her from sleeping. As he watched, Rin ran back and forth enthusiastically, leaping into the air despite the fact that the butterfly flew much too high for her to hope to catch. Her determination impressed him, as it had in many situations, and not for the first time he found himself wondering what made humans expend such energy straining for such unreachable heights.

Off in the distance, his servant Jaken, shouted epithets at the ryu-beast, Ah-Un, who was being happily difficult for him this day and so refused to carry him the rest of the way to the meadow where Rin played. Sesshomaru could smell the few things Jaken had managed to gather for Rin's meal, two small fish and some un-ripened fruits, and gave an imperceptible sigh. His vassal still hadn't learned to properly feed the girl, and this failure was calmly noted for future reference. Perhaps the toad demon would receive a rock to the head today, or possibly a boot tomorrow.

"Lord Sesshomaru, did you see the butterfly? Wasn't it beautiful?" Ryn stood unsteadily and breathing heavily a few feet from him, sweat making her scent a bit stronger.

"I saw it." He answered, and looked to the field. "There is another."

"I'll get it!" The child whirled and raced off, not even asking him where he'd seen it. She came back after a time with a single red daisy. "My lord, I brought you a flower!"

He nearly smiled, knowing what was coming next. "Thank you, Rin."

"Of course, Lord Sesshomaru!"

Sometime later, Ah-Un walked into the meadow, settled himself in the grass, and titled his head in greeting to the young human girl who waved to him. "Hello, Ah-Un! Oh, you're alone!" She patted the beast and wandered back over to the flowers, mumbling. "I wonder where Jaken has gone…"

Another short interval passed before the toad's piercing voice rang from further in the brush. "Milord! M-Milord, I have returned!" By the time Jaken collapsed into the clearing, there were several small hills made of blossoms surrounding the daiyoukai and a single pile forming near the ryu-beast, every bloom gathered individually by Rin's careful hands. Lifting his head weakly, Jaken cried. "I've completed the task you set out for me, milord!"

Rin placed another flower in the pile next to the trailing end of Sesshomaru's moko moko and then waved to him. "Hello, Master Jaken!"

"Rin, you foolish girl!" The small demon blustered as he leapt to his feet, apparently forgetting his extreme weariness. "Stop bothering Lord Sesshomaru with your silly flowers!"

No one paid particular attention to Jaken as he ranted, and a minute into he's speech, Sesshomaru stood, silencing the lesser youkai immediately. "Jaken, feed Ryn." He said, and began to make his way into the trees.

"But- but, Lord Sesshomaru! Where are you going?"

The daiyoukai didn't bother to turn. Instead, he answered with a tossed stone which resulted in a somewhat satisfying cry of pain, and then he continued toward the patch of Rin's favored berries about a mile up-wind, planning to supplement the child's meal. He'd nearly reached them when he sensed it.

A large aura of vibrant youkai energy was heading directly for the clearing he'd left behind, and though it was still a long way off, he turned to face it. He couldn't yet tell what sort of demon was heading this way, but Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes and flared his own aura to ward it off. Subtle annoyance flashed through his eyes when the creature didn't change course, or even seem to acknowledge his warning, and so he turned and began to go back. In the mere split second it took for him to reach his stride, the aura was closer to the meadow than should have been possible. A silent snarl graced his lips as he immediately began to race for the clearing, and he reached it with barely enough time before the challenger arrived.

"Jaken! Take Rin and go!" He snapped as he flitted passed them.

"Y-yes, Milord!" They leapt on Ah-Un, and the beast lifted into the air and over the tree-line.

Sesshomaru halted in the center of the flower filled meadow and drew his sword, Bakusaiga, flinging his immense power outward as he announced coolly. "Dragon Strike." In answer, a torrent of crackling dragon-shaped energy ripped toward the trees, ready to rend the intruder asunder even as it arrived.

Inexplicably, the blurred figure that burst through the brush vaulted over the stream of energy, landed, and kept moving with the same wild speed, like it had never been interrupted. Surprised, and furious because of this surprise, Sesshomaru dashed into the path of the blur and loosed a deadly whip of light. Again, the blur jumped, which wouldn't have saved it this time, but just as it was about to be wounded by the twisting whip, it curled and changed direction in mid-air, landing deftly about twenty yards away from Sesshomaru. It stopped moving. There stood a female demon in strange dress, and in that still second before her scent reached him, he saw her doggish ears and immediately thought of his half-brother.

Sesshomaru was vexed to be reminded of the worthless hanyou.

The blade of Bakusaiga was raised again. "Die."

Another swing of his sword sent energy crashing through the air, and when this was dodged as he expected, he was in the air above the female, launching another assault. But, even as he was bringing his blade down for a clean kill, she flowed around it like water and came back to ground about fifteen yards away, not even fazed by his missed attack's resulting explosion.

She smiled at him as she assumed a loose fighting stance, and Sesshomaru inhaled her scent.

Pure, undiluted inu youkai, a century or so younger than himself, and not of his clan—no, certainly not of the West, by her looks alone. Visually, she looked very different from all other dog demons he knew of—not as tall, not as lean, more rounded and somehow more feral, with strange youkai markings that were similar enough to his to reinforce in his mind the fact that she truly was inu. Not just inu, but powerful, besides.

As he was analyzing her presence, Fuko was casually unlimbering her dual-headed spear from its holster across her back. She hadn't realized there was a powerful demon around, or else she would have compressed her aura to keep from being conspicuous, but now she figured she could stop her search for an hour or so, just to teach this stranger a lesson about attacking people without provocation.

"So?" She called as she twirled her weapon lazily. "Are we going to fight?"

Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed. Now that he was sure she was a full-blooded demon, he didn't want to kill her as much, but her disrespectful tone couldn't be ignored, nor the challenge of the weapon that she was waving around. However, he wasn't an idiot, like that foolish pup this female reminded him of. He had attacked first. She was defending herself, trying not to show weakness. He would quickly show her the danger of challenging him, and then be on his way.

The battle began with a clash of auras, followed quickly with a clash of blades.

In a ballet of power, both dancers probed the others defenses in a lightning quick exchange of Fuko's attacks and Sesshomaru's counters, which flowed into one another at an alarming rate. Fuko swiped, connected with Sesshomaru's blocking sword, avoided his answering punch by dropping low and redirecting his momentum to the side, spun away to avoid a kick, swept at his legs with the shaft of her weapon in the same motion, bounced upward and to the side to avoid the hilt of his sword, bring her own blade up to redirect his next swing, again, again, again, spun to the side and swiped at his flank which was exposed, was blocked, avoided his claws and then his feet when he countered, vaulted over the broad-side swing of his sword, allowed her own momentum to carry her over his head, before having to displace herself midair to dodge his return swing. Block, kick, block, jab, swipe, jabjabjabjabjabjabjabjabjab… Both realized it was a stalemate—neither of them could connect—and in the same motion, they rode the shockwave of their blades meeting in the opposite direction from one another. There was only an instance's pause in the action before Fuko rushed in and they were flailing away at each other's guard again.

Fuko could barely see her own rushing attacks for the crackling power in the air. When he had ramped up his youkai, trying to suppress her without a fight, she'd been forced to match him, now she was struggling to keep this fight from getting deadly. Every time their weapons met, there was a flair of power radiating out from the impact in a starburst pattern. For now, this was little more than a light show, but it was starting to get out of hand. Was this guy insane? It was as if he was really wanted to hurt her! Maybe she should take it up a notch…

Sesshomaru found himself snarling in the face of this frustrating female's defiance. The wavering after images that they were leaving behind all across the meadow were starting to overwhelm his eyes, and with every attack, they made more. She was quick, but it shouldn't matter how fast she was with his youkai raised to such an morale-crushing level. She should be pleading with him to spare her life, not forcing him to dodge an array of jabs from her spear. This was no longer a matter of teaching her a lesson, it was a battle of wills that he didn't intend to lose. He wasn't going to toy with her anymore…

()()()()()()()()()()()

Jaken danced on the toes of his feet on the edge of the cliff Ah-Un had brought them to, staring with worry at the horizon that was lit up with the display of power from back at that silly flower-filled meadow. He couldn't stand it!

"Arrrgh!" He cried, clutching his head and stomping his foot in frustration. "I can't just stand here when Lord Sesshomaru could be in trouble!" He whirled and, with giant tears in the corners of his eyes, shouted at Ah-Un. "You take me back there right now!"

The right head snorted and the left head turned and indicated Rin with his snout.

"What are you talking about, you stupid beast? What could possibly get to her on a high cliff like this?"

The creature vocalized and shook their heads.

Jaken jumped up and down, waving his weapon, the Staff of Two-Heads, in the beast's faces. "You do as I say and get me back to Lord Sesshomaru or I'll—AHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

The right head had opened his mouth and blasted Jaken half way across the sky with a beam of youkai energy. It was in the direction of the battle, but whether this was by design or by accident, Rin couldn't tell.

"_That_ wasn't very nice, Ah-Un." She said, but quickly relented and hugged the large ryu-beast's leg. "I hope Lord Sesshomaru and Jaken will be alright…"

Half way across the sky, the charred kappa youkai collided with a tree branch, snapping it with his impact, and fell ungracefully into a prickle bush. After a moment of weak flailing, he struggled out of the offending foliage and staggered on his feet, eyes swirling dizzily. "Ahhhh…that… damn Ah-Un…"

A nearby explosion snapped him back into his senses and tears appeared in the corners of his eyes again. "I'm coming, milord!" Jaken race through the brambles. When he reached the meadow, at first he was sure he'd found the right place. The whole area was torn asunder, flowers and grass long gone, gouges dug deep in the earth, trees ripped in half, some up-ended with roots forlornly pointing toward the sky; it was as if this particular area had never been tranquil one day in its existence!

But Jaken could sense and hear that there was a raging battle going on right in front of him, though he couldn't exactly see it. Lord Sesshomaru was moving so quickly! Jaken nearly shed tears at the excellence he was almost seeing before him. After images of his noble leader striking at a strange demon appeared to him after a few seconds of searching, but he knew they were seconds behind the action.

Suddenly a deafening explosion shred the ground right in front of him, kicking up a wave of soil that buried him. Struggling to the surface while using the staff to brace himself, he thrust his head out, body following, and tried desperately to see what was happening. He was just in time to see a flash of light, and then the two figures were flung apart, his leader landing gracefully across the muddy field from him, and the attacking demon landing with its back to the waiting kappa youkai.

This was it! His opportunity to help! "STAFF OF TWO-HEADS!"

Before more than a tongue of flame emerged from the old man of the staff's mouth, the strange demon turned and locked one wide green eye on the short green youkai. Jaken didn't even have time to flinch. Before a ball of flame was created, much less sent forth to burn the attacker alive, the hapless kappa youkai had the staff ripped from his hands, was tossed into the air, and then struck with his own weapon with just the precise power and trajectory to send him shooting through the air—half way across the sky, to be accurate—back the way he'd just come.

Fuko, shaded her eyes and watched the lesser demon fly for a moment, then turned to the demon she'd been fighting just a second ago. "Was that yours?"

Sesshomaru watched impassively as Jaken reached the apex of his flight. "Hn."

"Okay." Fuko glanced down at the strange staff in her hand, ran her thumb over the polished wood, and then tossed it clear of the melee to free up her hands. "So, shall we continue?" She looked to the stranger and, for the first time, paused to really take him in.

He was pretty tall, with pure white hair down to his knees, dressed in an impressively decorated kimono with flowers inside geometric designs. He looked… fit, certainly was strong, and maybe was a little older than herself. His aristocratic face was colored with youkai markings—twin purple stripes on each cheek, and on his forehead, framed by long bangs, was a blue crescent moon. **A blue crescent moon.** _A blue crescent mo-_ "H-hey!" Fuko lifted her spear and tossed it, and it buried itself blade deep into a nearby stump. She had effectively disarmed herself. "Are you-you're a dog demon, right?"

Sesshomaru had tensed when she lifted her weapon, but at the sight of her casting it away, he warily sheathed his sword. He wasn't going to toss it around like a toy, but he didn't need it to beat her. "I am." He answered, briefly considering why she would have to ask, before deciding that she was used to seeing dog demons that looked more like herself, and dismissing that information as irrelevant to the battle.

"That mark on your forehead," She touched the same place on her face, through the obscuring bangs. "Someone told me-the moon is the mark of the west, right? You're from the Western Lands."

"I am." He said again, growing a little impatient. This was all painfully obvious information, and he was more than ready to continue the fight.

"Right." She said, so softly he was sure she wasn't talking to him. "Right, so…" The female began to approach him slowly, stride steady and sure, hands kept visible in a decidedly non-confrontational way. She looked almost as if she was approaching a wild animal, which she was, as far as she knew. She'd even begun to lower her aura, still keeping it at the same density in order to fend off his, but no longer was it so battle-ready. "I've got some questions I'd like for you to answer. Let's not fight anymore, okay?"

Sesshomaru could feel his fingers try to twitch, but he was perfectly still, of course. "You do not wish to finish?"

"No. It isn't important. We both know we're good fighters, right?"

_Not important? _Sesshomaru mentally scoffed, visibly relaxing his stance into a more casual one, but still absolutely deadly. If this little female wanted to play a game of deceit against him, then she would find she had made a grave error.

Once she was about ten yards away, she dropped her hands. "Well. I…" She suddenly lifted her arms, and Sesshomaru watched carefully, but all she did was lace the fingers behind her head. "Well… excuse me! This is unexpected, you know? I've been looking for… I don't know where to begin."

She turned and began to pace to the right, and Sesshomaru carefully kept her in view, as well as the spear she had left across the field. A strategic placement, perhaps? When the female paced back to the spot her had been at before, he narrowed his eyes. This was getting tiresome.

"Well." Fuko said again, and turned to face the stranger directly. "I—what's your name?"

He didn't answer.

"Right." She nodded, remembering a little of the demon etiquette she'd picked up in her travels. "Sorry about that. I'm Fuko. What is your name?"

"Sesshomaru, Lord of the Western Lands."

Fuko blinked, stopped herself from saying 'Aha!', and tamped down her small spurt of excitement. Just because he was in charge of the place didn't mean… "Lord Sesshomaru, have you ever seen this mark before?" She brushed aside the hair falling over her fore-head and showed him the youkai mark there. She knew by heart what it looked like. A blue tear-shape- very close to the blue of his moon- with two curling swoops taken out of the middle. It was a flame. Or a spirit. Someone had told her in no uncertain terms that it was a spiraled sea shell that had been cut in half. She didn't know, which is why she was asking.

He glanced at it, gave a suspenseful pause, but then said succinctly: "No."

Slowly, she let her hand drop. "Oh." She sighed, and then shook away the disappointment. "Well, do you think someone else from the West, one of your subjects, I would assume, would recognize it? Someone older than you?"

He was quiet for a second before he replied. "I would not know."

"Right." Fuko scratched the back of her head. "Well, I guess I just have to go find out, huh?" She turned her back on him and started to walk back to her spear, but then froze, remembering. "Hey!" She walked quickly back, coming closer to him than she had before. "Are you going home? I mean, to the Western Lands, soon?" When he didn't immediately answer, she waved her hands in a placating manner. "I'm not trying to get you to do any asking around for me, or anything. I was just wondering- could I travel with you? I'm not the best at finding my way…"

He stared at her, not looking at all pleased by the idea. Not that he looked displeased. He didn't really look like anything, she realized. If she hadn't seen him snarl mid-battle, she would have thought that he was incapable of expression. When he still didn't answer, she began to wonder. Was it because she'd sent his kappa youkai friend flying? He hadn't seemed so upset when it was happening. "I wouldn't be any trouble. I'd just be there until you get to the Western Lands."

He didn't seem to react.

A little frustrated, Fuko crossed her arms in front of her chest and waited for a reply.

After a few more seconds, he softly scoffed. "What makes you think that I would consider helping you?"

Fuko thought about getting offended, but decided that not everyone did things out of the kindness of their hearts. He was well within his rights to expect compensation, but she found herself feeling a little disappointed in the stranger. Which was unreasonable of her, but- what the hell, it was her opinion, right? She could feel how she wanted. Nodding, she began to make her bargain. "As I said before, I wouldn't be any trouble to you. I can fend for myself. As an added incentive, while I'm with you, I'd be willing to help you."

Did he narrow his eyes just a little bit? She wasn't sure. "And what, exactly, would I need your help for?"

She shrugged at him. "You never know when you could use another demon around, right?"

"Hn." The daiyoukai hid his annoyance. Her aura was now at a completely non-threatening level, and it seemed that she really had no intention of finishing the fight. If other demons were present to witness this, she would be seen as admitting defeat, but in a decidedly unofficial way. Because of the fact that he had loosed his Dragon Strike twice- though in a lesser form, of course- and she hadn't used any higher level attacks at all, she could later argue that she had called a halt to the battle because she didn't think it worth-while to continue. There was also the fact that neither of them had landed a hit on the other. This did not please him. While she had shown him she was adept at non-lethal combat, he was certain that he would easily overcome her in a true battle.

But she apparently had no will to fight, and without motivation, she couldn't possibly be a challenge for him. It seemed that this was simply another instance in which he was destined to be disappointed by his opponent.

As for her traveling with him, he didn't even have to think about it. "No." Sesshomaru crossed the torn field, collected the Staff of Two-Heads, and began moving toward the cliffs where Ah-Un had taken Rin.

"…No?" The female didn't chase after him, as many in her position had before, but she did call after him as he disappeared into the foliage. "Right. Okay, Lord Sesshomaru! I won't travel with you! Thanks!"

Sesshomaru nearly paused, but continued on his way uninterrupted. It was strange that she would thank him for denying her, but it was not his concern.

Fuko waited for a few minutes after he left, not moving from her position, and then compressed her aura, drawing it into herself deeply. Smiling, she went to collect her spear, Chikyukiba, and as she drew it from the wood of the stump, the blades glowed. "Was that fun?" She asked it. The glow faded slowly. "It was fun for me." She limbered her weapon and started following her new guide. Unknown to her new acquaintance, she had carved a little something into the wood of his kappa friend's staff. The simple homing mark wouldn't draw anyone's attention, and if she was careful he would never suspect that he was leading her west with every step he took.

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**Okay, yeah. Get ready for next time! **

**Chapter III: The Friendly Stalker's Bargain**


	3. The Friendly Stalker's Bargain

**Hi, it's been a while! I know what the difference between youkai and youki is now! Yay! Still some controversy over 'kappa'. The Inuyasha wiki I found says Jaken is a kappa youkai, which means 'water sprite'? and he looks like a toad and the anime calls him an 'imp' and a 'toad', sooo****… artistic license!** **Okay****, here's another chapter. **

**Also, I don't own Inuyasha. You knew that.**

Miko- priestess. Hanyou- half-demon. Inu- dog. Ookami- wolf. Neko- cat. Ryu- dragon. Kitsune- fox. Youkai- demon. Youki- demon aura/energy. Daiyoukai- great demon. Moko moko- Sesshomaru's fluffy fluffy tail. Kappa- toad.

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**Chapter III: The Friendly Stalker's Bargain**

Fuko wasn't a very careful demon. At least, not around children.

With her youki compressed nearly to the point of pain, Fuko scuttled forward the last few inches, waited a second, and then allowed herself to relax just a little. Stalking a demon like Lord Sesshomaru was a bit nerve-racking, especially with the heightened sensitivity he was displaying, but for the inu female, it was absolutely necessary. The little girl among his followers was simply irresistible, and once she was enamored with a child, she became preoccupied with making them smile.

It began on the third day of tracking the staff, and by this time she had already deduced that the group ahead of her included the demon lord, the kappa youkai, a dragon-creature, and the human child. Though she was curious about the eclectic foursome, Fuko had made sure to keep herself no less than three miles away from the homing mark, and hadn't thought of a reason to risk getting any closer until she scented the juice of the yellow berry wafting on the breeze. Sweet and tangy with just a little bite, and a unique flavor that reminded her of warm, sunny days in a marshy green land she'd once crossed as a youth, the yellow berry was nothing short of a rare delicacy and Fuko had spent a sleepless night lamenting their decision to camp next to the berry patch, effectively keeping her away. That morning, when they began moving again, Fuko had tramped happily into the sweet-smelling area, expecting to get a snack, but instead found, to her horror, that every single ripe berry had been picked and then half of the bushes had been stomped into the ground. She hadn't been able to imagine what had happened to make this so, but suspected that some fool had perpetrated a food fight and then the dragon must have stampeded through the small clearing. She had shed a few tears in mourning, quietly said a prayer for the decimated bushes, and continued to follow the homing mark. Strangely, even hours after leaving the berry patch, she had continued to catch whiffs of the fruit from up ahead. She almost assumed it was her wishful mind playing tricks on her, but knew her nose was far too hard to fool. Someone had salvaged some berries, and Fuko had been determined to get some.

()()()()()()()()()()(That day…)()()()()()()()()()()

Steeling her youki against detection was a far more delicate task than gearing it up for battle, and doing so while using it to disperse her scent was even harder. If she hadn't been so well trained at sneaking up on the aura-sensitive, she was sure she would have been discovered already. As it was, Fuko didn't dare get closer than fifty yards to the blazing aura she knew belonged to the male inu youkai. It turned out to be more than close enough for her purposes. Her nose told her that the berries were near the river, with the child and the dragon. Both the kappa and the inu youkai were in the forest, maybe hunting. After a moment of careful consideration, Fuko edged around the axis of the powerful aura, moving carefully toward the river. She arrived in a fair amount of time, she thought, despite the fact she couldn't use her speed to its fullness without alerting the demon lord to her presence.

Peeking out of the bushes, Fuko looked around, spotted the dragon beast, and then the child, standing naked hip-deep in the rushing water. Fuko was a little surprised to see how small the girl was, seeing as she had imagined her to be older.

"Brrr!" The girl cried, flinging handfuls of the water into the air. She giggled. "It's cold, Ah-Un!"

Fuko smiled at the tinkling of her laughter. She sounded so bright, like a little ray of sunshine… Quickly shaking the thought away, Fuko cast about, spied a simple reed basket tucked safely at the edge of the trees, and moved closer. The demoness was well aware of her weakness for children, and knew it wouldn't be good to dwell on how adorable this one was. She resolved herself to just get some berries and go.

In seconds, her objective was within her grasp, but when she saw how few berries were left inside the basket, guilt began to gnaw at her. What if this was all that the girl had to eat? Fuko looked to the river again, trying to gage how well fed the child was. She was thin, but not at all starving… Fuko sighed, thought for a moment, and then grasped upon a brilliant idea. Why not let the girl decide if she wanted to share?

Working rapidly, she moved backward, deeper into the bush, and began pulling leaves from the foliage. Using fox magic and the surrounding greenery, Fuko instantly fashioned another basket, smaller and neater than the obviously hand-made one that held the berries. She placed her basket next to the berry basket, and broke a small twig from a fern to draw into the dirt with. When she was finished, there was a depiction of yellow berries above an arrow leading from the half-full basket to the empty one. Looking at her handy-work, and then to the frolicking child, Fuko smiled and moved back into the bushes to do a bit more fox magic. After adding a little incentive to the bargain, she moved away from the baskets to wait.

A while later, Rin came crashing out of the water and laid down on the rocky ground. She didn't much like bathing in the cold river, but Master Jaken had said that there were no hot springs near-by, so she had to do it here. As the little girl lay in the sun to dry, she hummed to herself and wondered where Lord Sesshomaru was taking them. She almost sort of recognized the path they were taking, but she couldn't be sure.

"Ah-Un!" She cried, sitting up. "Do you know where we are going?"

Un opened his mouth and yawned while Ah drank from the water.

"Rin doesn't know, either." Slowly, the girl laid back. After a little while longer, Rin decided that it didn't really matter, and climbed to her feet. Yanking her clothes back on even though she was still damp, she said. "Okay, Ah-Un! I'm done!"

Playing a game with herself in which the rules were that she could only step on the darkest gray stones, Rin skipped over to her basket that she had left over by the trees. When she landed in front of it with a little flourish, she shouted. "I did it!" She looked over her shoulder at An-Un. Un titled his nose at her while Ah shook water out of his mane.

Rin looked down at the basket, reaching for it with both hands, but frozen with her arms outstretched when she saw that there were two baskets! One of them was hers, it was brown and made from reeds, but the other was small and green, and looked as if it had been patched together with leaves. Between the baskets, Rin could see that someone had drawn some pictures. A little alarmed, she looked around for who might have left the new basket, but didn't see anyone. Looking again at the green basket, she noticed that there was something inside. Reaching in, Rin pulled out a clay figure that looked a lot like Ah-Un! "Wow!" She said softly. It was really pretty! The clay Ah was yawning and the clay Un was stretching his neck. The figure even had little clay bows in its mane. The real Ah-Un didn't have bows—she looked over her shoulder to check. Rin put the toy Ah-Un on the ground on its feet and made it walk over to the brown basket while making little screech-y sounds like the real Ah-Un makes. As she did this, Rin noticed the drawings again. There were two arrows, one pointing to her brown basket and one pointing to the green basket. Above the arrow pointing to the green basket, there was a bunch of round lumpy things, and above the arrow pointing to the brown basket, there was a four-legged stick drawing with two long necks and two triangle heads. Rin thought this supposed to be Ah-Un, and if that picture was Ah-Un, then the round things might be berries! Again she looked around, but it was still only Ah-Un and her by the river.

Smiling, Rin poured some berries from her brown basket into the green one, filling it, and then put the toy Ah-Un into the brown basket. Looking into the trees, she shouted. "Thank you!" And then the girl ran over to her dragon friend. "Look, Ah-Un! It's you!"

Fuko smiled and retrieved her payment for the toy. The girl was waving the figurine in front of the dragon's noses, giggling. The female inu youkai knew that laughter would make the berries taste even better.

()()()()()()()(Present)()()()()()()()

Since then, Fuko had traded a clay human girl for a melon, a clay kappa youkai for some roasted potato, and a clay inu youkai for a couple of apples. This morning, when she'd passed through where the group had spent the night, she found the crushed inu figurine next to a sloppy basket filled with mushrooms. Fuko hated mushrooms, but she appreciated the thought, so that's why she was now risking detection in order to deliver a new toy to the girl, whose name she had learned was Rin. Such an adorable name! So fitting to her small statue and cute little sideways pony-tail! Fuko steeled herself. This was neither the time nor the place to dwell.

Shifting slowly, Fuko brought forward the hand-made basket with the toy inside and carefully pushed it into view of the tree that Rin was sleeping against. From her scouting, she calculated that this particular spot would be plain to the girl when she woke, but not immediately visible to Lord Sesshomaru, who was getting to be a real pain in Fuko's neck. Since the first exchange between her and the girl, the demon lord had been very, very watchful, and going undetected was getting very, very hard. Fuko had half expected that the basket left behind in their camp had been a trap, but well… she found children irresistible. Once the basket was in position, Fuko stealthily retreated, smirking to herself. Mission accomplished. She supposed that she might be a pain in that inu youkai's neck too.

And she was correct. Sesshomaru growled softly to himself as Rin picked up the offending grass vessel. Not even the glimmer of an aura had appeared at the edges of his perception throughout the night. He had laid a barrier around the camp, and not even an ant should have been able to approach without detection. One had not. He knew every insect that moved around the small clearing, but had no notion of exactly when that basket had appeared under the bushes on the northern edge. This deeply displeased him.

When Rin had shown him the toy Ah-Un five days ago, he had immediately seen the workings of fox magic on the clay. Once he had determined that it posed no threat to Rin, and that it did not have any purpose other than to be a child's plaything, he had let her keep it. He had spent some time tracing back over the spot where the trade that the girl described had taken place, and found little else but the dirt drawings. The lack of a scent had told him it could not have been a lesser fox demon, a hypothesis that was supported by the fact that Ah-Un had sensed nothing. He did not know what a higher-level kitsune would want with a human child, but decided that it was unlikely to happen again.

Sesshomaru hated being wrong. The toy Rin had been there when he had returned from clearing the path ahead of a band of lesser demons. Again there had been no traces of the fox. Next, Rin came back from foraging with a toy Jaken. The real Jaken had been with her, with instructions to be on the look-out for a fox demon. He received two lumps on the head for his ineptitude. When the great lord found Rin exclaiming over a toy version of himself, he had been coldly furious. Sesshomaru had been certain that no one had been near them, but the girl told him she had seen a hand pull the basket of wild greens into the bushes and then replace it with her own two eyes. He had left her for just a second to investigate an unusual smell, had been no more than thirty yards away the entire time. When Rin had placed the clay inu youkai in his hands and he saw that the maker had added bows to its clay hair, he had crushed it. It had been unplanned, but he realized quickly that acquiring a new one would bring the fox within striking distance. When he told Rin that her fox friend would doubtless make her a new one, she had refrained from crying. The girl's tears made him uncomfortable, not that he would ever allow her to see that discomfort.

But, at least he had learned something from the failed stake-out. Sesshomaru knew now that the maker of the toys could not possibly be a kitsune, fox magic or no. No fox was powerful enough to pass unnoticed through his barrier. He had immediately thought of the peculiar female dog demon when this occurred to him, but could not make the idea mesh. Though she had managed to hold her own against him for the short amount of time that they fought, what he had felt of her power was not worth his attention. Though her aura had been large, it lacked the depth of potential that was evident in the truly powerful. There had been no indication that she would have been able to penetrate his barrier, but the fact that she came to mind meant he should not assume it was impossible.

"Lord Sesshomaru, loooooooook!" Rin ran over with the clay figure in her hands. "You were right, she did fix it!"

Alerted, he said. "She?"

Rin grinned at him. "Only a lady would make it pretty like this!" She thrust the toy into his field of vision.

Sesshomaru turned his head slightly away in restrained disgust. "She" had made him look ridiculous!

Jaken approached. "What's this?" He snatched the toy from Rin. "Oh, milord!" His eyes grew round and the inu youkai heard him choke. "S-such a f-fine likeness…"

Sesshomaru stood, causing Jaken to throw the toy in the air in alarm and prostrate himself. "I mean, you look horrible! No, I mean, you look ridicu- no! I mean the _toy_ looks-"

The demon lord crushed the kappa youkai's head into the ground under his boot as he walked over him to the place where the basket had been left. He knew he would find nothing, but he needed a moment to think. While ridiculous and insulting, the appearance of the clay figure was another clue. The profusion of bows had brought to his attention the strange shape of them, not unlike the flamboyant, non-traditional bow that had been fashioned from the obi of the female dog demon's kimono. Standing in the spot where Fuko had crouched only hours ago, the Lord of the Western Lands pondered this. The gender of the toy maker was merely an assumption, despite Rin's logic, and the penchant for bows was circumstantial at best. Besides those two paltry pieces of information, there was no other link between the toys and the female. What he knew was that the toy maker was a practitioner of fox magic without the pre-requisite of being a fox demon, powerful in the manipulation of barriers, and extremely stealthy. He also realized that this person had been following him for days. Since his encounter with the strange female, in fact.

Vexed, he foraged deeper into the trees and flared his aura to probe the surrounding miles, but no lesser demons were flushed from hiding and no glimmer of power presented itself to indicate a demon of adequate power passed nearby. The forest they were traveling through was usually not so empty, but then those who would have been frightened by his approach would already be far away. Turning, he called. "Rin."

"Yes, Lord Sesshomaru!" The girl bounced up from the grass, clutching the clay inu youkai figurine.

"Gather what you need to make another trade with your toy maker. Jaken."

"Y-yes, milord!"

"Go with her."

The next sunrise found them in the same place, with the same problem. Sesshomaru inspected the new toy, which was a clay rabbit, standing on its hind legs. It had a bow affixed to its tail.

Jaken was pressing his face into the ground and wailing. "Please forgive this poor vassal, Milord! I've failed you again! Truly, I was awake the whole night, watching that blasted basket. Some powerful sorcery must have clouded my vision-"

"Jaken."

"Yes, milord!"

"Have Rin fill the basket again and remain here."

The kappa blubbered with gratitude and praise that Sesshomaru could not be bothered to pay any real attention to. Last night, he had found five claw marks gouged into the side of a tree. They were fresh and completely scentless. Sesshomaru calculated that the mark was no more than a half mile from his camp, and he suspected that the toy maker had been here no more than half an hour ago. He measured the placement and position of the scratches against his own hand, and he estimated that a demon like himself only smaller and shorter had made the marks with a casual, thoughtless swipe. It would be that female's undoing, for he was no longer willing to assume this was mere coincidence. He suspected her purpose was in laying some ridiculous scheme to punish him for refusing her company, a plan that possibly included abducting his charge. From her perspective, stealing anything of his would be a grave insult, and better still if he cared for the child. Even if this was not her objective, this game of cat and mouse could not be tolerated. It was unacceptable and it was disrespectful. She would not escape unscathed. After the wasted days of travel, he was now completely and terrifyingly focused on capturing the devious female.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Fuko scooped the cool water of the stream into her face and shuddered at the refreshing sensation. Laying back onto the stream bed and letting the water flow around her, she idly traced patterns in the canopy above and pondered the current stalemate between victim and stalker. She wasn't sure which role was hers anymore. Lord Sesshomaru hadn't broken camp for three days, and she felt restless. The demon's little green sentinel hadn't moved from the exact center of their camp in all this time, which meant that her homing mark didn't move either. If she moved too far away from it, she would be lost. Every morning there was a new offering from Rin for her on the edge of the camp. It was a trap that failed every time, but Fuko was becoming more and more wary. As easy as it was to evade the kappa's detection, Fuko was starting to realize that the Lord's trap wasn't centered in the clearing. Somehow, he was starting to track her across the ten square miles to which she was confined. For the past two nights, she'd been forced to move periodically to avoid the nightly sweeps that the Lord was doing. With every attempt he came a little closer to catching her unawares and his single-minded persistence was starting to unnerve her.

"What a disturbing demon." She muttered to herself. She didn't like dealing with adults for just this reason. They were so single-mindedly focused on their agendas and the things they desired that any occurrence that didn't further their plans was considered detrimental. She wasn't harming anyone by leaving gifts for Rin. She wasn't even inconveniencing the demon lord by following him. He shouldn't even know she was there.

Fuko's half submerged ears twitched in response to a minute fluctuation in the energies of the forest around her. Alarmed, she sat up and let the water drip out of her hair and ears as she checked her points of reference, which were always few. Her spear was only seven feet away, leaning against a tree on the higher bank of the stream, along with her clothes. The homing mark was in another direction, not really opposite, but close to that. She could feel the kappa there, and his youki seemed more distressed than usual. She wondered at that for a moment, but she had noticed over the past days that the little green demon was prone to such highs and lows. The ryu beast wasn't at the camp site, and neither was little Rin, but they were together and close enough to their resting place for this to be typical. The demon lord had fallen off her radar.

He did that every now and then. When they were traveling, she figured out that he was searching ahead for threats to his following. They weren't traveling now and he was searching for her. He didn't know that she, personally, was who he was looking for, but she didn't know where he was to avoid him. It was a stressful situation for Fuko, but she tried to cheer herself out of her paranoia. Of course, not knowing where he was didn't necessarily mean that he was creeping toward her even as she sat here in the water.

The skin on the back of her neck prickled at the thought and Fuko surrendered to her instincts. She would cut this bath time short and find somewhere less exposed to wait until he popped back up. She stood and made her way quietly to her clothes, which she put on and adjusted properly, and then she limbered her weapon. A small tugging sensation at the corners of her perception made her youki lock down tightly just as a pulse of foreign demon energy washed over her.

Even as she struggled to remain still and let the energy wash through her without reaction, she knew she had made a mistake. The scatter-shot style probing wasn't what she had been expecting, and while the jab of energy that first brushed her had been evaded, the second that was centered farther away from her caught her off guard with the back wash of its outward ripple. The pattern in which the energy was thrust out wasn't wholly unfamiliar to her, but she had never encountered it outside of her childhood training. She'd never used it herself, because while the multiple points of inquiry gave move opportunities to find whatever response you were looking for from the auras of your surroundings, the back wash of these rippling energy probes distorted the responses. All one would learn from this method of search was whether or not something with a large amount of youkai energy was nearby. Apparently, this was enough information for the demon lord, who had revealed himself with the release of his youki. He was moving toward her quickly, and from a starting point that was distressingly close to the stream.

Fuko calmed herself with a few deep breaths and then crouched down on the bank of the steam to place her hands between the roots of an overhanging shade tree. Hurriedly, she began to dig. She had no time to run without alerting him of her exact location, but that didn't mean her jig was up. While Fuko couldn't stop a rippling pulse from resonating with her own youki at close range, she could effectively mask her every other aspect of her presence from an area for a short amount of time, if she didn't move and wasn't touched.

If a seeker using this flawed search technique was too close to his quarry when he probed for a demon aura, his own energy would mask it. For this masking effect to work correctly, the seeker needed to be very close, virtually right on top of his target.

By the time the demon lord arrived at the stream, Fuko was hidden underneath six inches of damp soil.

The scent of fresh water, clay sediment, dirt, and plants were all that greeted Sesshomaru upon his arrival at a lazy bend in a shallow stream. After his sudden purposeful sprint through the forest, he expected to immediately plunge into a battle, but all around him was peaceful quiet. He stilled himself and listened, but nothing moved. Even the simple vermin crouched in their subterranean holes seemed to be perpetuating a motionlessness that was almost unnatural. The moment it took to ascertain that no one was fleeing from this area passed and Sesshomaru stalked down to the water to look for the tracks he knew in all likelihood would not be there. She had been here just a few moments before, but no useful trace ever remained by the time he was there to see it. Unexpectedly, the stream bed _had_ been disturbed, but the inconclusive groups of displaced pebbles did not reveal which way the female went. If anything, they indicated that she had never left. Not willing to discount the idea, he probed the area, but nothing alerted him to any presence other than his own. Dissatisfied, he leapt up onto a high bank and inspected the ground for the faintest hint of passing, but the dirt was fresh and the leaves of the foliage were pristine. He probed the area again, and then the surrounding forest, to the furthest of his reaches. There was nothing to be sensed. There was no more to be gained by staying here, but he was reluctant to leave. She had been here. But his every sense told him she was not here anymore. He disliked having to leave without any sort of tangible clue, but reason told him that his enemy was getting farther away with every second he stood staring into the water at the unconvincing sight of churned up mud. With a nearly imperceptible growl Sesshomaru sped on, heading farther away from the camp and deeper into the forest.

Some time later, Fuko let out the breath she'd been holding and slowly began to claw her way out from under the shade tree. Once the last layer of old leaves and top soil fell away from the opening of her hideout, she slid out and began to fill the hole so the tree's foundation wouldn't be compromised. The tight space underneath had been about as big as every other simple den she had dug for herself, though she now wondered how she could have been comfortable in such a small space. She hadn't needed a den for hundreds of years and she was surprised that the process was still so close her basic instincts. After finishing the dirty job, she ran her hands over the rough bark of the tree to knock off the caked dirt and murmured a bit of fox magic to the tree. Obligingly, its first outer layer cracked open and her spear fell out. She caught it and closed the tree again.

"That was close." She whispered to her weapon, and began a measure lope in the opposite direction of the demon lord. She kept that pace for the next five hours, changing directions only when she approached the boundaries of her ten square miles. There were no more close calls, but by the time the moon rose over the horizon, he was still hunting. She grew weary, not of running, but of running circles around him. Stalling wasn't in her nature. She had always been action oriented.

As the shadows deepened, Fuko began to formulate a plan.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Jaken started awake in the gray of dawn, horrified to have found himself sleeping. It was understood that if he was left alone over night with Rin and Ah-Un, he was to guard the camp site until his master's return. Though his master had not ordered another trap set, he still had to be vigilant. Glistening tears formed in the toad's eyes. But he was so tired! He hadn't slept at all since they had stopped here to hunt the damn toy maker! He wiped the shameful tears off his face and tried to steel himself against such displays. When he returned, Lord Sesshomaru wouldn't want to find him like this!

At the thought of his master's return, Jaken felt a chill go down his spine. What if he had already returned, and had found him selfishly shirking his duties by dozing the night away? Jaken cautiously looked around the clearing. Rin was sound asleep and curled up against Ah-Un's shoulder, and the ryu-beast was dead to the world with both heads resting on the ground. His master's aura couldn't be felt anywhere around. The kappa youkai heaved a sigh and wiped the nervous perspiration from his brow. "I'm sure glad Lord Sesshomaru didn't come back and find me sleeping." He said into the stillness. "If he had, I would have taken a rock to the head before you could say-AH!"

Jaken didn't even bother to look around or wonder what had been thrown at him before he pressed his face into the ground and began howling out a long string of apologies, excuses, and self-flagellations. As he was begging forgiveness, he internally cursed his big mouth.

"Jaken, stand up."

The little green demon halted mid-word and scrabbled to his feet. Had Lord Sesshomaru _growled_ at him, or was it his imagination? He gazed up at his master, who was by this time looming over him. "Y-yes, milord?"

"Jaken." He said again, and another chill went down the kappa's spine. "What is under your hat?"

"M-my hat, milord?" Without thinking, Jaken reached up and slid his fingers under the lip of his small hat and felt around. To his astonishment, he drew out a roll of parchment. "Where did _this_ come from?"

Sesshomaru took the small scroll and stepped on Jaken's chest as he walked over him.

"M-milord!" Jaken coughed and staggered again to his feet. He looked up just in time to see Lord Sesshomaru finish reading the paper. Still walking, the demon lord disintegrated the fragile paper with use of his acidic poison before disappearing again in to the trees.

Jaken groaned and flopped back onto the ground. The sun wasn't even out yet and he had already earn his master's disfavor.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

_Greetings, Sesshomaru, Demon Lord of the Western Lands. I hope this letter finds you well. I challenge you to a duel! Please meet with me at dawn on the broken ridge near the small lake fed by the steam that you nearly found me at yesterday. I hope to discuss the terms of our battle there. Thank you for your time. Until sunrise, Fuko of the North._

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**Yup! Next time on Westward Bound!**

**Chapter IV: Fuko vs. Sesshomaru!**


	4. Fuko vs Sesshomaru!

**Hello! **

**Sorry sorry! The previous chapter is really not over! I was so eager to get it out there that I over looked the title of the chapter! So, for your reading pleasure, chapter 3 concluded and chapter 4. **

**p.s. I don't know what to do about honorifics! I like when Rin uses them, but it feels a little weird to use –san and –chan and –kun but not –sama. I really like –sama, but I've been using Lord and Lady. Whatever, artistic license!**

**Also, I don't own Inuyasha. You knew that.**

Miko- priestess. Hanyou- half-demon. Inu- dog. Ookami- wolf. Neko- cat. Ryu- dragon. Kitsune- fox. Youkai- demon. Youki- demon aura/energy. Daiyoukai- great demon. Moko moko- Sesshomaru's fluffy fluffy tail. Kappa- toad. Dokkaso- Sesshomaru's poison

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**Chapter III continued. **

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_Greetings, Sesshomaru, Demon Lord of the Western Lands. I hope this letter finds you well. I challenge you to a duel! Please meet with me at dawn on the broken ridge near the small lake fed by the steam that you nearly found me at yesterday. I hope to discuss the terms of our battle there. Thank you for your time. Until sunrise, Fuko of the North._

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Fuko's furry ears swiveled expectantly toward the pale figure that was walking over the crest in the ridge, but didn't catch any of the sounds that might've accompanied such activity. Lord Sesshomaru was silent, though Fuko supposed this was not for the purpose of being stealthy. He was coming toward her in plain sight and his roiling youkai aura had preceded him far before the sounds of his passage would have given him away. Besides, the purpose of their meeting didn't require stealth. She hoped. Nervous, the female demon adjusted the strap of her weapon that looped around her body, but then quickly let it fall back into its original position. She also hoped that her weapon would not be needed to convince him to listen, though she was not quite naïve enough to place it on the ground at his feet as she had done for the young fox demon not long ago.

Hesitating only briefly, she sprang to her feet. "Good morning!" She called, and then awkwardly stopped herself from waving half way through the motion. The demoness wasn't accustomed to convening with enemies, but she realized that friendly greetings weren't exactly appropriate.

Lord Sesshomaru didn't reply to her greeting and didn't seem to notice the aborted wave. Just as a red sliver of sun rose above the horizon, his silent walk came to a graceful stop about twenty yards from where she stood. She hummed—how punctual of him. He gazed at her impassively from that spot for a full thirty seconds before she decided he wasn't going to engage in any unnecessary words. Inwardly wondering at this anti-social behavior, Fuko started the negotiations.

"Lord Sesshomaru, I called this meeting for the purpose of settling this stalemate between us. To that end, I will tell you exactly what I want from you." With no reaction from the Lord of the West, she continued. "I only want to go to the Western Lands, and then only to ask some harmless questions of your subjects. I cannot travel there alone. Guides to that region are hard to come by, and in all the time I've been working to get there, you are the closest thing to a reliable escort that I've found. I truly mean you no harm, and I apologize for any disrespect, but I am determined you follow you back to your homeland."

They stared at each other. Fuko wasn't sure what she expected him to say, but the fact that he was here and listening meant that her plan was working. Except that her plan was really more of a bargain, and she didn't know if he would accept or not. Grown demons struck Fuko as unpredictable. Adults of any race were a source of general confusion and distress for her, but she hoped that she had judged this individual correctly. The short amount of interaction they'd had before revealed more in hindsight than she thought he would be comfortable with. He carried himself with the air of superiority of one confident that their every action served as some credit to their highly esteemed and prominent name. He had seemed bizarrely eager to fight and unwilling to back down once provoked. She guessed that, like most people who laid claim to one title or another, he attached great weight to words like honor and power. She also guessed that someone on his level, someone who was uncontested ruler of a region, might want for something to test his strength against every now and then.

"You don't want me to follow you." Fuko continued. "You asked before what I could possibly offer to make you change your mind, and I answered incorrectly. Now, I offer you a challenge. If I can defeat you in battle, I get to follow you to the Western Lands." Seeing the slight narrowing of his eyes, watching him grip the hilt of one his swords, she finished lamely. "If I fail, then I'll leave you in peace."

"Hnn." As he drew the katana, youki began to radiate from the gleaming metal, and in turn the daiyoukai's aura began to thicken into a visible spectrum. He regarded her impassively as he raised the blade against her. "And if I were to kill you here and now, you would leave me in peace just the same."

"Yes, well." Vaguely, Fuko was aware that his youki was bearing down on her, but she was naturally resistant to intimidation. If she were asked about it, she would be reminded of a friend who affectionately told her that her density rivaled that of the sun. "I suppose, if you feel you have to kill me in order to defeat me…" Fuko drew her weapon, and gathered her energies. "I'm willing to take that chance." She began to twirl the double-headed spear, and then demanded of the daiyoukai. "Lord Sesshomaru, do you accept my challenge?"

He began to walk toward her in that same slow graceful pace he had used before, and their battle auras met in a flash of light and crackle of power. "I do."

Fuko began to side-step, beginning the intricate dance that would make or break her victory. "And do you agree to up-hold the terms- _on your honor as a lord_?"

For the first time since that meeting of blades several days ago, his eyes narrowed and his lips curled into a true expression. It clearly communicated that he would not respond to a question so beneath him, almost as clearly as his first rushing attack.

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**Chapter IV: Fuko vs. Sesshomaru!**

Though no one knew this and Sesshomaru himself would never knowingly acknowledge it, the demon lord of the West had an appreciation for the dramatic arts. As well read as he was, and with as many performances as had been played out before him, he was aware of the many tropes and themes that flowed faithfully through literature and reality alike. While he had no patience for the clichéd or the predictable, a time-honored practice like a duel of honor at dawn had its classic sort of appeal. And it certainly was not something he would have predicted from the sly female, but stupidity had a remarkable capacity for capriciousness.

His first strike flung her backward, and though she landed on her feet, seemingly unfazed, he was undaunted. He lunged again, and again, but she leapt to the side both times, and just as he was placing his feet after the third lunge, she turned with that astonishing speed and kicked him in the side. He skidded several yards, staying on his feet with sheer force of will. He was unable to draw in air, pain arcing along his ribs in a telling manner. At least four were fractured, one was shattered. She had not just kicked him once in that single split instant there his guard was open. He had felt no less than ten blows though he had seen her move only once. Sesshomaru shook off the paralyzing pain and faced her again. She was in that same loose fight stance she had presented at their first meeting, but she was not insolently twirling her weapon, and though he expected some sign of gloating, there was no triumphant smirk. Her eyes were hard with determination. The faint scent of blood reached him and he spotted the tear in the side of her kimono, but he knew whatever damage she had allowed his third strike to do was minor. Inwardly, he cursed. He was a fool to forget that impossible speed she possessed, and no matter how idiotic she seemed, he would lose if he underestimated her.

The female began her own offense, dashing to the side in what he at first assumed to be an attempt to get behind him, but she lifted her spear and the blade thrummed with a deep indigo energy. She unleashed a long range attack that manifested as an energy blade which gouged marks into the soil as it sliced toward him. He easily dodged the first and the second, then stepped into the third and halted the surging energy with a volley of his own. The Dragon Strike stopped the attack but fizzled without continuing onward, proving it to be a waste of energy to block with. More of the rushing attacks came at him from multiple directions, gaining number. For every one he dodged, three more would come at his back. Finally, he leapt into the air, used his youki to halt his descent, and from there judged his position.

The field below him flashed indigo twice more before it went still and a haze of dust and debris obscured his vision. Her youki had dispersed thickly over the area, and he was having trouble locating its center, so he instinctively scented the air. Suddenly, he realized that she was coming at him from the right, and he turned and unleashed a whip of radiant youki. She used that same strange means to change course mid-air, but she had chosen the wrong direction and it barely took him a flick of his wrist to correct. His whip wrapped around the forearm she raised to deflect it and the acidic properties made themselves known, burning almost instantly through the sleeve of her kimono and drawing blood. With a fierce growl, the female slashed the whip with her spear and fell back into the obscuring cloud.

Sesshomaru smirked. So, her clothing was not as durable as his, and the small tear in the side of her kimono showed that she hid no armor. For every strike she landed, a part of the impact was absorbed by his youki infused clothes and another larger portion was absorbed by the thick armor that shielded his torso. If he had landed the rapid-kick assault that she had, his foot would have gone through her ribcage, simply because of the difference in protection.

An energy blast from below took him by surprise and knocked him from the air, singeing his left side wherever his armor did not reach. It had erupted not even a quarter second after the female disappeared, and without giving him leave to plant his feet on the ground, she appeared from the left and jabbed at him. He parried and parried again, stepping backward, looking for any opening, but she was giving a relentless offensive and at the same time expertly sweeping his counters aside. The clash wore on until Sesshomaru drew blood, but he barely registered that he had before she let go of her spear completely, struck at his chest with both hands, and gripped her weapon again.

Both demons leapt apart, one sporting a slash on her forearm that bleed liberally, the other sans his spiked pauldron. With the speed and accuracy of a berserker pick-pocket, the female had slipped her hands into shielded nooks and crannies on his person and cut most of the ties holding his chest-piece in place with her claws. As the gleaming shoulder piece fell into the dirt and Sesshomaru regained his footing, the rest of his powerful demon armor loosened around his body, instantly becoming an awkward hindrance instead of a boon. He shed it wholly without hesitation but not without regret, for while he would not tolerate any hindrances, he cursed himself for taking even that quarter second to smile when his opponent was plotting to even the odds. In the time it took him to break those last bonds of his armor, she regain the length of both of their leaps backward and began the assault again.

This time, she was rushing him fast and wild, leaving herself open to attack to increase her chances of connecting. He sensed no desperation in her motives and the steady determination in her eyes was the same as before. This new style of attack was perfuming the air with a mist of blood. Every injury he inflicted, she returned, and he could not yet tell who was getting the lion's share. As the scent of blood became thick, the beast inside him began straining toward the surface and the very edges of his vision ran crimson. There was no time to consider the emotion whelming up from the place where the beast struggled, but he tasted the effects. Rage strengthened his hand and made each cut from Bakusaiga unforgiving and each slash of his claws burn with dokkaso. But as the battle wore on, they were too few, hers too many, and the blades of her spear and the tips of her claws were just as honed as his. She was far too fast for this battle to continue along the course he had planned for it, and the doses of poison were failing to slow her as they should. And so he decided to cripple her.

With the next ring of metal meeting metal, a surge of his youki drove her back and Sesshomaru took to the air again. The cloud of dust had partially settled and the sun was high, so the only obstacle to his eye was her continuous, random motion. Even as a blur, he managed to track her movement along the ground, and it vaguely struck him as odd that she did not continue her attack for a full second. Taking the opportunity her distraction provided, he raised his sword and sent a maelstrom of Dragon Strikes down to ground level. He lost sight of her in the sea of roiling energy, but was unsurprised when she appeared above the danger unscathed. She was coming at him, making no attempt to conceal her presence, and with a rapid series of swings from her spear, another barrage of indigo blades sliced through the air toward him. Sesshomaru flew out of the path of the blades and watched as she fell to the ground again—it seemed she did not have his affinity for flight. The instant her feet touched the ground, she was jumping up again, and this time she forewent long range attacks and slashed at him directly with her weapon. The fool. He flung her backward with another surge of youki, and when she started to succumb to gravity, he loosed his whip and made his move. She swept her spear from side to side in front of her, deflecting the burning whip again and again, but just as she was about to land, he achieved his aim. The whip wrapped around the shaft of her weapon and he yanked her back into the air above him. His feet planted firmly into the dirt and he reached up, striking like a cobra and withdrawing his hand only when it was thoroughly coated in blood. His beast reveled in it, vindicated for this challenge to his status, and Sesshomaru's eyes flashed with lurid color before he suppressed it.

The female tumbled upon her landing, rolling twice before coming to an upright stop with one leg lifted pitifully and the spear working as a prop. A low, pained growl floated over to him, and he began to walk across the field toward her. She faced him, saw his unhurried pace as he came for her, and leapt backward under the power of her good leg. Again, she landed badly, going to her knees with a hiss of pain nearly thirty yards away. She bowed, placed her hands flat into the dirt and looked up at him from this submissive position.

He expected her to plead, but she did not. She shouted. "Fox Fire!"

Violet flames surged forth from her hands and raced outward, following the lines and gashes in the earth and revealing a pattern. Sesshomaru discovered that he could not move faster than his current pace, and he was slowing. When the flames completed their mad race to complete the spelling circle that Fuko had etched into the field, the binding magic was dragging on him, crackling visibly over his body in blue and purple arcs. His youki flared wildly, his eyes flooding with red as his beast roared at this new indignity. He picked up speed in his grim march toward her, intent on finishing this. The female's eyebrows lifted and she slowly raised her spear, taking careful aim before sending a single a single youki-blade flying at him. It struck the blade of Bakusaiga, driving him backward and into the center of the fiery circle and she raised her spear again to plunge it into the ground.

Hellish red light burst up from the fox fire and when it washed over him, his strength began to fall away like grains of sand through a sieve. His beast bucked powerfully and Sesshomaru lost control, his power ripping through the humanoid shell that felt far too small to contain all that he was. Even as his maw was lengthening, his white fur rippling over dense muscle, his body growing to titanic proportions, the red light brightened and the beast's roar became one of impotent rage. Giant paws strained against the chains of energy, and took one half-step toward the target of all his blood-lust, but it was to no avail. The binding magic coiled and he shrank back, pulled down to man-size once again. Sesshomaru swayed on his feet, trying to reason past the lingering anger and the overwhelming weariness. He had to defend himself, he had to stop this light, he could not move, he barely had the strength to lift his sword… and then he had no strength for that at all. The world spun and he staggered, leaning on his sword to stay on his feet. It was important that he stay on his feet.

In his last moments of consciousness, he had no energy for anger, whether it was fueled by pride or by bitterness. He could only think that it was fortunate she did not wish to kill him. Then he wondered: when he woke next, would he kill her for it? Hnn. Something to consider.

In the battle's aftermath, the tattered and abused land looked as if a thousand soldiers had spent days tramping down the greenery and spilling their blood in an effort to turn all to burgundy muck. Considering the churned up soil, Fuko carefully leaned her weight into Chikyukiba and used the gained leverage to stand. Her right leg was useless at the moment, but she made her way with practiced ease toward the prone figure in the center of the spelling circle. The spear made a handy crutch. This wasn't the first time an opponent disabled her, but it was the first time she wouldn't kill in retaliation. The female inu youkai feared losing her speed like a great artist feared the loss of his hands, and though it felt to her like what he'd done was thoughtlessly malicious and cruel, she knew intellectually that it was the most prudent thing to do. When she finally made it over to him, she refrained from stomping his head and instead reminded herself of what a good strategy it had been and how he had nearly won because of it. If she hadn't planned to bind him in fox magic from the start, he would have won. It was just as well—he didn't look like he could withstand a good stomping at the moment. Had his skin always been slightly blue like that? And was it just her or was he thinner than he had been? She sighed and wondered if she had taken too much from him. It was his own fault if she did. She had stopped as soon as he lost consciousness, for that was her only goal, and his unsettling tenacity kept him awake far longer than it should have. Anyway, he wouldn't die from his condition and she would set him to rights soon enough, so it would be all right.

Balancing on her left leg and tensing the muscles of her right thigh to keep the limb from dragging along the ground, she quickly crouched, thrust her arm under his torso, drew him securely to her chest, and stood again in the same motion. Wincing, she congratulated herself on maintaining a semblance of grace. As she awkwardly conveyed the grown male across torn ground and into the shade of one of the few trees that still stood on the edge of the field, she focused on the victory. She would recover, and with a little shed blood, she was now closer to her answers than she had been since she lost her birth parents so long ago. Once in the Western Lands, she would visit the strongholds or the castles, wherever the nobles gathered, and if they couldn't tell her anything, then she would tour the demon villages under their rule, and if that failed, then she would comb the forests for lone youkai. Even if no one knew of any who could be her kin, they would suggest others who could know. There were untold ancients, demons who had seen countless years, crouched in the belly of the earth, awaiting the opportunity to impart knowledge. The West would host a few of these behemoths. With so many new memories to pick though, someone had to know something. Someone would help her.

Fuko laid the daiyoukai down as gently as she could before leaving him briefly to wobble over to a nearby crater. As she had hoped, his armor was where he dropped it, and she took the time to returned it to him, laying it on his stomach. Bracing her weight against the tree and driving her spear into the ground, she activated another spell. It was the near opposite of the spell used to drain him, and when an odd green light seeped up from the earth, she settle down next to him and adjusted her leg before leaning back against the tree. The luminescence, though having at first a liquid quality, began to manifest into a cool, twisting flame and licked without feeling at her body.

Though she was in a prone position, she remained alert and wary. Lesser demons and those who could have stood their ground against the on slot had sensed their battle auras and fled. In the days she'd spent running around the area, she hadn't scented an unknown human at all. They were alone here, but she didn't dare sleep, and couldn't bring herself to close her eyes. She hated not having her speed to call upon when it was so much a part of her. Having been so fast since she was tiny, she knew even in the bleakest of situations she could escape, but with the tendons in her right leg ripped apart, she couldn't escape a child. But Chikyukiba was guiding the healing light into her disabled limb nearly exclusively, and she didn't feel the least bit guilty for healing herself first. Already, she could feel the tattered flesh of her calf muscles stretching and pulling, striving to re-knit and be whole again. Her other wounds and bruises were doing the same and after a dragging twenty minutes, the outpouring of the earth's energies restored her to a comfortable condition. If she needed to make break for it when the daiyoukai awakened, she would be able. Then Fuko snorted to herself. Her body might be in working order again, but her clothes were a mess! She took a few seconds to throw a pity party before murmuring the bit of fox magic that would clean and repair her. Once that was underway, she turned to the still form beside her. He wore his armor again, and the spiked arch was rocking into place over his left shoulder. This would have disturbed her deeply if she had known nothing of demon armor. It moved sometimes, she reminded herself.

Touching the shaft of the spear and whispering a few words changed the focus of the light, and it flowed like a liquid once more. Clear green luminescence ripple up and out of the gouge in the soil created by the spear as if she had tapped into a rich water vein. Where the light reached, green life began to spring up, overtaking the muck and creating a soft carpet of moss and grass. It washed over the Lord of the West with immediate effect, stealing away the unnatural bluish tones from his skin and deepening his breathing. Now he was sleeping instead of unconscious, and she decided that she forgave him for destroying her leg.

Fuko stared unseeing at the movement of his chest for a few seconds, before her eyes focused. For the first time since she had crossed his path, Fuko looked at Lord Sesshomaru directly, fully absorbing what she saw. A strange feeling of pride welled up in her. This was a dog demon, not her kin, but of her people. He was not just well-put-together (with his eye-catching and expensive-looking clothes that were strangely free of bloodstains), but striking in his features. She shared nothing of his exquisite, aristocratic looks—in fact when she compared her memories of her reflection and the still, expressionless face before her, she thought that she must look like a little dark-haired ruffian sitting next to a porcelain prince—but she liked this image, these differences displayed across the arc of their shared race, even if he was prettier than her. The thought came that he would look like a girl if he wasn't so damn imposing. Besides this impressive beauty, he was powerful, and a better opponent than any other she could recall at the moment. In hindsight, she could admire the lithe magnificence of his fighting style and the awful intensity of his youki. Remembering his eyes at that crucial moment when she had forced him back into the center of the binding circle made a shudder crawled over her skin. She smiled with a quick flash of fang and thought happily that she would have a horrid time of it if she ever needed to kill him.

Even as these thoughts came to her, the feeling of pride started to fade as it had before. Beauty and power only counted for so much. Though he was a noble, he had yet to prove himself righteous or even decent. He'd been rude to her so far, and showed a deplorable willingness to kill her for what she considered minor transgressions. Like most of the adults she'd met in her life, he was tainted with an overpowering self-interest. She settled deeper into the tree, the moss that was now growing there creating a comfy cushion. If he upheld his word and delivered her to the Western Lands then maybe he could make her truly proud of her people, but until then, she would just have to reserve judgment.

She considered the sleeping male for a few seconds more as her eyes started to drift closed. He looked peaceful. Maybe even innocent. Almost like a child. Kinda.

Fuko settled deeper still into the thick cushion of moss and let her eyes fall closed, murmuring quietly. "Maybe we can be friends, Lord Sesshomaru."

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Sesshomaru stirred. He knew that he was too far from the waking world, but he did not yet wish to leave his current state. He felt that he drifted in cool water, a body foreign and immense, without the touch of sunlight and without the scent of decay, somewhere deep and unreachable. The water knew him. It asked nothing of him. It asked nothing. It existed. In doing so, it invited him to exist alongside it, asking nothing.

Sesshomaru stirred. He knew he was not awake, but he felt that he was small again. He ran on four legs, wild with abandon. The sun warmed his fur. The wind whipped his face. He chased rabbits through tall grass with no thought toward capture. No one said that he should stand on two legs.

Sesshomaru stirred. He knew that he was near waking, so he took the opportunity to face himself. The beast inside him rumbled in displeasure. _Audacious bitch._

The Lord of the Western Lands stirred and entered the stage of sleep that he was most accustom to. He was not truly sleeping, but it was a restive state he entered every few nights as Rin slept. It was all he required, though no one with any choice would choose never to sleep deeply. However, this was the first deep sleep he had enjoyed this season, and it was the deepest he'd ever experienced. He imagined that he would only sleep deeper once he had perished. Waking fully, Sesshomaru took in the scents around him, and then open his eyes slowly to adjust to the full sunlight. Tall green grass cradled his body, reaching toward a cloudless blue sky, and the accursed female rested quietly beside him. She was awake and grasping her weapon, which was vertical, presumably sheathed in earth as he had seen it before. Her lips quivered and the edge of a word reached him before she drew the spear out of the ground and laid it on her side opposite him.

Fury began mounting inside him at an alarming rate. He was honor bound to deliver her to the West, not just the lands but the holding, and not just her but her whole and unharmed. It was not the letter of the agreement, but it was the spirit and the spirit was what needed to be upheld in order to fully erase all stain of dishonor from him. Because she had dishonored him, Lord Sesshomaru, in battle. She should not have won. She had not cheated, but she should not have won. He was more powerful, he knew this, but she had out-smarted him. Just this once. He would never allow it again.

"Good morning." She said, watching him, not with the proper wariness, but with an open curiosity that offended him.

In a short glance, Sesshomaru took in her appearance. He judged her rumpled, though she looked much the same as their first meeting. She sat comfortably in clothing that had no tears or snags, showing no signs of lingering injury. At this close range, he saw that while her repaired kimono was simple, without a pattern or crest, it shimmered oddly, as if the material were not only silk, and the obi showed the same quality. Her hair was unbound and fell down her back and over her shoulders in dark crinkled waves. The facial markings that had made her appear more recognizable as a great dog demon now made her all the more unusual. Her green eyes were bright and clear, without any self-satisfaction that he could detect. He had assumed that, upon waking, her conceit would be something he would have to correct violently, honor-bound or not, but here he was thwarted again. The female did not respond in the predictable ways, but he saw now that this itself was only to be expected. All that he had observed of her flaunted convention, from her slightest mannerisms to her aggressive actions. Properly raised females would not be so bold as to force their unwanted presence on an unfamiliar male, much less meet his gaze so directly. He was not under the illusion that a well-bred female would not have concocted some under-handed way of securing what she wanted, but her plans would have included the proper subtly and subservience. Furthermore, a more traditional female's plans would have offered some small intrigue before they were duly dismantled, however cunning and sly they might have seemed to the planner. This strange little mongrel processed all the subtly of a battering-ram and still achieved her aim. He inwardly sneered at her flamboyant choice of kimono and carelessly tousled hair. She was unpredictable, but only because she was aimless, and despite her apparent prowess on the battle field, she had revealed herself to have little class. And now he must take her with him.

Looking away disdainfully, he sat up and considered the sea of waving grasses that stretched out across the field where the battle had taken place. He knew he could not have slept long enough for this to occur naturally, and he suspected whatever process had restored his youki had somehow healed this small valley, for his youki _was_ restored to him. He felt extremely well rested and he stood, testing muscles that responded gladly and without protest. He noticed that he still held Bakusaiga in his hand and sheathed it. His armor had returned to him in his sleep, ties repaired.

"How long have I slept?" He demanded.

"Through the afternoon and night. It's the next day." He heard her clothes rustle and felt her stand, though he did not deign to look upon her again.

She moved until she stood in front him, even going so far as to rise up to the balls of her feet. "Are you well?"

Since she so wished for his gaze, he gave it to her, cold and foreboding. Did she think that because it was necessary that he refrain from killing her, he would allow disrespect?

"Any nausea?"

The question disconcerted him and made him consider whether or not she had poisoned him while he was vulnerable, but he dismissed the idea immediately and held his glare. She did not show any sign of baulking, but she did take a few steps back. It was not as though she did it out of deference, but he reasoned that the concession showed that the proper respect could be conditioned into her.

"Excuse me. You can probably handle any nausea on your own." The female glanced upward as if to indicate the position of the sun. "Shall we go?"

_Impertinent! _Sesshomaru quailed his first response, which would have been unseemly. Instead, he turned away from her and began moving toward his camp. It would take twenty days of hard travel to reach the Western castle, and he would be damned if he allowed her to test his control any further. He could ignore her for that short span of time. She had been permitted far too much already. He should have killed her on their first meeting. He should have realized immediately that she would not give up so easily. He should have been watching out for her to lay some trap. He should not have answered her challenge. He should not have assumed that she relied on speed alone in battle. He should have considered that her fox magic would have some offensive application.

She was not behind him.

A snarl came unbidden to his lips, but it was suppressed almost instantly. Sesshomaru turned slowly and saw that the accursed female was standing exactly where he had left her, showing no signs of moving. She had affected some pitiful look of uncertainty, as if she were not sure if she should follow, and she reminded him disturbingly of Rin. He was enflamed—he would not be fooled by anymore of her trickery. How dare she expect coddling?

"Come." He spoke the command around a growl, allowing just enough emotion to show that he would rather she was rotting in the dirt.

She smiled at him.

Sesshomaru began moving toward camp again, sorely hoping something living would cross his path so he could choke the life out of it and relive this terrible want of blood-letting.

Fuko followed the raging inferno of not-anger that was the Western Lord, still wondering if she shouldn't just try and find her own way one more time. He hid his emotions expertly, but that little bit that he let slip was more than enough. He hadn't said a word in the forty minutes they'd been walking, and that icy glare was still burned into her mind's eye. She had been stunned when he first turned it on her. He _hated_ her. Fuko had been hated before, but Lord Sesshomaru was the first dog demon she'd ever met! It felt like a failure, like some cosmic joke. _Don't I belong anywhere?_ She asked herself. But this was all secondary. She needed answers far more than she needed to belong. So, she would follow. Grin and bear it, as it were. And try to make it up to him.

When they approached the campsite it was a few hours passed dawn and the daiyoukai entered the clearing without hesitation. Almost before the others knew they were there, he began giving orders. Fuko stood just beyond the tree line and watched with wide eyes as a three day camp was broken down into two tiny bundles and stored away in a single saddle bag in less than five minutes. How was that possible? Whenever she found herself traveling with a child, the baggage was always far more than that. Maybe Rin didn't have a lot of extra clothes.

No one saw her in the sudden bustle, but once the work was done and they were ready to continue their travels, the little group seemed to notice her as a whole. Rin ducked behind Lord Sesshomaru, the ryu-beast made a startled sound and reared, and the kappa started squawking something that she didn't catch at all. Fuko was focused on the girl and saw the moment that fear stole into her doe-brown eyes. A pang shuddered though the female inu youkai's heart and she immediately fell into a knee-hugging crouch with her ears pinned to her head. The child's fear lessened, and Fuko gave her a little smile. Their eyes met and held, and as they held, the girl's fear dissipated completely. Rin gave the cutest little shy smile and edged forward just the tiniest bit.

"Who is that, Lord Sesshomaru?" She whispered.

Jaken shouted. "You, female! Who are you? What are you doing here!"

Ah-Un vocalized and stamped his front feet.

Fuko's smile widened and she sketched a small spelling circle in the dirt at her feet, breathing a single word. White light shone briefly, leaving a small figure in its place. Her heart swelled when the little girl grinned and took three quick steps toward her and the new clay doll standing on the ground.

"You made Rin's dolls!" Rin cried, excited. "Is that for Rin too?"

"You! Troublesome toymaker!" Fuko saw the toad's eyes bulging as his voice rose to new heights. "B-but—What! What! Mi-milord! What is the meaning of this? Did you not mean to kill this creature just yesterday?"

Before ryu-beast could express his opinion again, a rock struck the imp upon the head, knocking him to the ground and blessedly silencing him. "You will not question this Sesshomaru." Each word was a chunk of ice pelting the poor toad.

Quieter, but still loud, he began wailing apologies.

"Silence." The word was absolutely frosty!

Jaken cowered. And so it was silent for a few long seconds, and Fuko took the opportunity to stand, scooping up the clay figure as she did so.

When he spoke again, Lord Sesshomaru's voice and face were completely without expression, but it seemed to Fuko that the words were dragged from him. "This female will travel with us until we reach the Western Castle. We leave immediately." He turned sharply and began walking at a pace meant to accommodate a child but still cover ground quickly.

"Y-yes, milord!" Not even sparing the others a glance, Jaken took up Ah-Un's reins and scrambled after him.

Again troubled with misgivings, Fuko fell into line behind the girl, who, with a quick 'yes, milord', instantly began following Jaken. What kind of group had she just joined? After just a few minutes, the girl child glanced back at her. They exchanged small smiles, but no words, and after a few minutes more, Rin began to hum softly. Fuko didn't know the song, but she listened raptly with twitching ears. Her misgivings fell away. She knew children, and such a bright and shining child couldn't exist in a group with a tyrant at the helm.

As the hummed tune began to repeat in a predictable way, she joined in, earning another little smile from the girl. The morning and early afternoon flowed away like that, first Rin and then Fuko taking turns leading the musical entertainment. No one spoke, and everyone kept moving. Fuko had just begun to wonder when they would take a break to feed and water Rin when Lord Sesshomaru simply stopped moving. It startled both hummers into silence, but Jaken didn't notice fast enough. The only thing that stopped Jaken from colliding with the back of his master's legs was Ah-Un's equally sudden stop and his grip on the reins. As it was, the momentum tugged him off his feet and he fairly exploded into sound, as if the words had been bottled up for too long.

"Ah-Un, you great lummox, you dumb beast! You did that on purpose! I'll teach you, you stupid lizard-"

"Jaken." Lord Sesshomaru half turned and regarded the imp, who had thrown himself to the ground upon hearing his name in that tone.

"Y-yes, milord?"

"Feed Rin." The lord turned and continued onward, probably to scout.

Fuko scuffed her boot along the ground, frowning slightly. Just before he turned, Lord Sesshomaru nailed her with that icy look again. It hadn't been filled hatred this time, but this look had been almost as disturbing. It was a clear warning—_don't try anything_. What did he think she would do? Slaughter his little pack? Obviously not, since he left her here, but the look still rankled. Fuko was a trustworthy, upstanding demon.

One second, she was looking at her feet and the next she was looking into an adorable little smile. Rin had come to stand in front of her. "Rin's name is Rin! Hello!" The little girl tried a wobbly bow.

Fuko laughed softly and returned the bow. "My name is Fuko. I'm pleased to meet you."

"Rin! Come away from that demon this instant!" Jaken trotted over and thrust himself in between them, brandishing his staff. "I recognize you now! You can't fool me! You're that demon from before, who attacked Lord Sesshomaru without provocation! I don't know how you got Lord Sesshomaru to change his mind about killing you, but I won't let you near Rin!"

The girl in question's eyes widened and a little look of worry touched her features. "Did you really attack Lord Sesshomaru, Fuko-san?"

The demoness blinked at the honorific and then shrugged. "He attacked me first. Besides, I didn't hurt him much."

Jaken's eyes bulged in that unpleasant way again. "You-you wretched woman! You would never be able to hurt the great Lord Sesshomaru at all! You can't do anything against him! You are nothing compared to-"

"So," Fuko interrupted. "Am I a killer demon who unduly assaulted your master or am I completely harmless and beneath notice?"

He sputtered.

"Aren't you supposed to be gathering food?" She asked.

The sputtering increased in volume. He looked as if he were choking.

Fuko shifted her focus to Rin and offered her the clay figure that she'd made that morning. "Here, Rin-chan, if I may call you Rin-chan. It's a bird."

Rin practically trampled the discombobulated imp to get a closer look. "Rin knows what kind of bird that is! That's an egret."

"So it is." The girl carefully took the doll, mindful of the long fragile legs. "Are you hungry?" Fuko asked.

Jaken leapt forward again, this time very nearly bashing her in the head with the staff as he waved it threateningly. "It's none of your concern if she's hungry or not!"

Fuko caught the waving weapon, yanked it out of his hands, and threw it into the bushes.

"My staff!" He cried, and went away.

"Rin's sorry, Fuko-san!" The girl looked embarrassed. "Master Jaken isn't usually so mean."

Though she suspected this was not the truth, Fuko nodded. "Let's find some food, shall we?"

Rin had a lunch of nuts, berries, and three small fish while Fuko watched, Jaken stood off to the side grumbling and Ah-Un idly nibbled the local flora. The girl didn't eat ravenously, but plowed through the meal steadily until everything was gone. She must have been very hungry, but too polite to gorge.

"May I ask you a personal question, Rin-chan?" Fuko asked as she chewed the last bite.

"Mm-hmm!"

"How did you come to travel with demons? It's very unusual."

Rin swallow and smiled, showing that she had lost a few baby teeth. "Rin was alone, but Lord Sesshomaru came, and Rin follows him now!"

Fuko's ears drooped, but she laughed anyway. "Well, that's a fair explanation, I suppose. But where are your parents, your family?"

The girl faltered, and seemed be trying hard to remember. "Rin had a human family, but then... something bad happened… and Rin was alone for a long time."

Fuko very gently laid a hand on the girl's head, smoothing her brow with the heel of her hand. "Well, you were lucky to have found a demon family, weren't you?"

Another gap-toothed smile appeared and the girl leapt to her feet. "Yes!" She fairly skipped over to the kappa youkai and, laying her hands on his hunched shoulders, began formal introductions. "This is Master Jaken! He's Lord Sesshomaru's vassal." Just as he was about to start squawking again, she skipped away and over to the ryu-beast. "This is Ah-Un!" She pointed carefully to the right head and then the left. "This one is Ah, and this one is Un! He's Lord Sesshomaru's steed."

"Rin! Do not speak to that demon! It is no concern of hers what our names are!" No one paid attention to the imp, and he hadn't come close to Fuko again, seeing as it had taken him some time to retrieve his staff and he didn't want to lose it a second time.

"What an interesting name." Fuko assumed a contemplative pose and tapped a clawed finger-tip to her lips, ears twitching with interest. "Is it possible? Do you know if he was named after the sound demons, Rin?"

The girl cocked her head to the side. "Sound demons? Rin gave Ah-Un his name, but Rin doesn't-" Rin suddenly clamped a hand over her mouth and then continued again slowly. "I mean, _I_ don't know of any sound demons."

Fuko hummed a little laugh at the child's self correction. "But, if you don't know of the sound demons, I wonder where you heard the name. The Ah and the Un do not live here."

"Where do they live?" Rin asked.

Fuko gave a self-deprecating smile. "I've no idea. I'm bad with directions, you see. I have no idea where I was when I met them, and the others like them. I know I was not here." Again, the demoness tapped a finger to her lips and said half to herself. "But it was a place much like this one. And to hear that name again, it makes me wonder if these places are closer than I first thought."

"Do you travel a lot, Fuko-san?"

"I travel like you breathe, Rin-chan."

"I travel all the time with Lord Sesshomaru and Master Jaken and Ah-Un. Do you like to travel?"

"I do like it, but I like to learn about new places, too, and that means I have to stick around."

"But if you are bad with directions, don't you get lost?"

"I do."

"Do you like being lost?"

"I've gotten used to it."

"How many places have you been?"

"A countless number, mainly because I'm so frequently lost."

The next twenty minutes were filled with questions and answers in a concentration only achievable with an inquisitive child, and Fuko was greatly entertained. When she felt the daiyoukai approaching, she stood from her seat and dusted off her bottom, wondering if the conversation would stop again when he arrived. "Your Lord Sesshomaru is coming."

The child's eyes brightened in a telling way and she jumped to her feet. "Lord Sesshomaru's coming?"

Jaken, or Master Jaken, as the girl called him, leapt to his feet in much the same fashion. "W-what are you babbling about, women? I don't sense milord's presence."

"Well, it's only natural that I would sense him before you, Master Jaken." Fuko moved over to the little fire, which was just embers at this point, and stamped it out completely. They had already cleared away Rin's leavings, and the saddlebags hadn't been unpacked at all. "You're a toad, I'm a dog…"

This little fact started a torrent of shouted insults and threats that were nearly deafening. Annoyed, Fuko strode over to the little green man and gripped him by the back of his robes to lift him into the air. Giving him through shake, she said. "Stop that squawking! No one is intimidated or impressed!"

He only got louder.

Sighing, she held the lesser demon out to Rin. "Do you know how to make him stop?"

"Lord Sesshomaru can make him stop." Rin said proudly.

Fuko turned to the trees where the Western Lord had stopped to watch the proceedings and held out the imp.

Jaken flailed wildly, voice reaching ear-spliting heights. "L-lord Sesshomaru! Help me! This female does not show the proper respect for her betters! She-"

"Lower your voice, Jaken."

He stumbled to a halt mid-word and Fuko set him down, relieved, but then he picked up his fallen staff and took a swing at her!

"Hey!" She snapped, and dodged another swing at her shins.

"You no good mongrel! You lowly cur!" He had lowered his voice alright, but neither he nor Fuko missed the subtle look Lord Sesshomaru sent Jaken with the order.

Lord Sesshomaru turned and said. "Come, Rin." To the girl who was standing and watching with concern.

"Yes, Lord Sesshomaru." She glanced once more at Master Jaken and Fuko-san. She decided that Jaken wouldn't catch her- she was moving too fast- so she turned to Ah-Un took his reins. "Come on, Ah-Un!"

As the three walked and the sounds of a one-sided battle faded in the distance, Rin said. "Lord Sesshomaru! Did you know that Ah and Un are named after sound demons?"

"Hn."

"Fuko-san says that the Ah and the Un live far away from here, but maybe very close, and the Un eat noise and the Ah eat silence. They look like snails, and can climb into your ears! How do you think one eats silence, Lord Sesshomaru?"

For a long moment, Lord Sesshomaru didn't answer, but Rin waited patiently and was rewarded for it. "Sound demons that appear as snails? There are none. It is simply a story she told to amuse you."

The girl faltered slightly. "She said that she went to where they live."

"Hn."

In the time before Fuko carried a limp and newly be-lumped Jaken back to the group and set him on Ah-Un's back to rest, Rin had recounted their short stop for lunch in its entirety, and Sesshomaru let her. He should not have been surprised when she lapsed into telling the accursed female what little he had to say about her stories.

"I can understand why he thinks they aren't real." Was all Fuko said about it, and then steered the conversation in another direction.

Night approached and fell before they stopped to make camp, and Rin was dead on her feet, barely able to eat the meager dinner Jaken scrounged up for her. Still, Rin tried to stay wake and keep talking, though Fuko tried to quiet her. Fuko helped layout her small bedroll, which was really just a few furs, and then encouraged her to lie down. That was all it took.

"Quite the little conversationalist, huh?" Fuko looked around at the others, but what she saw reminded her instantly that she was not wanted here. Her only fan was deeply asleep. Jaken sat with his back to her, minding the fire and giving her the silent treatment. He'd woken up in a bad mood, but she didn't mind the quiet. Lord Sesshomaru sat with his back against the tree in a strategic sentry position, radiating near toxic levels of not-anger and not-loathing. And he was not-glaring (not looking toward her but tracking her every move in a way that communicated that he thought she was unimportant but treacherous). Even Ah-Un was watching her, though she had no way of knowing what he-they? - were thinking.

She suspected that the kappa youkai usually rested near the child and had no intention of usurping anyone's role in Rin's odd little family, so, with a quiet sigh, Fuko left Rin in her spot part way between the fire and Ah-Un and went to a more unobtrusive location to wait out what promised to be a tense night.

* * *

**See you next time!**

**Chapter V: To Relieve Stress**


	5. To Relieve Stress

**Me again! **

**Okay, here's another chapter. Maybe it should have been in two parts. **

**Also, I don't own Inuyasha. You knew that.**

Miko- priestess. Hanyou- half-demon. Inu- dog. Ookami- wolf. Neko- cat. Ryu- dragon. Kitsune- fox. Youkai- demon. Youki- demon aura/energy. Daiyoukai- great demon. Moko moko- Sesshomaru's fluffy fluffy tail. Kappa- toad. Dokkaso- Sesshomaru's poison. Hime- princess. Kami- gods.

* * *

**Chapter V: To Relieve Stress**

The child was too stressed. Fuko worriedly glanced from the kappa youkai to the ryu-beast, and then to the inu youkai. Everyone was stressed, but no one except the child would get a weakened immune system and possibly a fever because of it.

Every change in a person's life caused stress, whether the change was good or bad, and Fuko recognized that her appearance in this little pack was a big change. Rin was overjoyed to have her there, and that was the problem—she was _over_joyed. With Master Jaken's near constant verbal abuse toward her, Ah-Un's cautious watchfulness, and Lord Sesshomaru's silent not-resentment, Rin was trying too hard to compensate and make her feel welcome. Now, this little girl was giving every indication that an exhaustion sickness was on the way, and Fuko was having none of it! The demoness began to formulate a plan.

It was only day three of traveling with Lord Sesshomaru and his group, but Fuko had the routine down to a science by the morning of the second day. It was a continuous game of Simon-says, and the Lord of the West made for an unbending Simon. They were up when he said up, down when he said down, and his followers seemed grateful for every order. Fuko didn't mind that, and she even appreciated hat he was a decisive leader. However, she wanted to protest the grueling pace, for the sake of the child. She didn't of course. He was trying to get rid of her by getting to the West faster, she assumed, since the group hadn't been moving nearly this doggedly before. Still, part one of the plan naturally involved taking extra care that Rin wasn't unnecessarily strained, as well as stuffing her with vitamin C and other immunity boosters. But, first things first.

"Is this good, Fuko-san?" Rin showed her the tuber she had dug up.

"That's not quite what I had in mind, but hold on to that." Fuko scented the air again. "I smell something really good over there." Taking her spear in hand, she knelt and presented her back to the girl. "Get on, Rin-chan, and we'll go see what's for breakfast."

Jaken scrabbled after the duo when they took off through the trees, shouting. "Wait for me, you demon wench! Where do you think you're taking Rin?"

Fuko quickly slowed, though she was already going slowly so as not to startle Rin, who was giggling in her ear. Part two of the plan involved making the others more comfortable, and she thought that the imp might soften if she accommodated some of his demands.

"I said, slow down! Idiotic dog!"

She rolled her eyes and jogged. "Please try and keep up, Master Jaken. We wouldn't want to keep your Lord waiting, would we?"

By the time they reached the little grove, Jaken had fallen far behind, but only because of the series of bushes Fuko had no choice but to jump over. She quickly helped Rin gather a few of the little seedless oranges from the wild citrus trees and then headed back. She offered Jaken a lift along the way, but was insulted for it.

"Suit yourself." She said with a shrug, and continued on with Rin waving good-bye from her perch on Fuko's back. It took Rin a few minutes to find the path Fuko had taken over the bushes, but after that hurtle, Fuko was able to sniff out their trail.

Back at camp, she watched Rin enjoy the fruit and the starchy roots that had been roasted over the small fire. Collecting the orange rinds, Fuko said. "Maybe we'll have tea with lunch, Rin-chan."

"Really?" The girl breathed. So adorable!

"Sure." Fuko reached over and ruffled her hair, and then frowned and sniffed. "And a hot bath."

"Really?" Rin turned to her daiyoukai. "May we, Lord Sesshomaru?"

He tilted his head to her and said. "Perhaps." Then he stood and turned toward the sun, which had risen rather beautifully that morning and still displayed some flashy colors.

Fuko's ears bobbed down then up in confusion. He had flicked a little glare at her, but what did that one mean? Was he annoyed that she was making Rin promises? No, he hadn't hesitated to discourage anything that he wanted no part of in the past two days, like when she mentioned swimming or patronizing a road-side tea house Rin had spotted on a nearby ridge. Both times, she satisfied herself with telling Rin a story about the activity they had to forgo, and the girl seemed happy with the substitute.

The female members of the group were just packing up the last of the camp while Lord Sesshomaru looked on when Jaken staggered into the camp, huffing. "I return to you, milord!"

In reply, the demon began to walk away. "Come."

"Okay!" Rin chirped, and Fuko echoed dutifully. Jaken squawked something like 'what about my breakfast?', but followed a little shakily in their wake, eventually taking Ah-Un's reins.

It was only a few hours later that Rin began running out of steam, her conversation flagging in that telling manner. Fuko offered to sing her a song in hopes of giving her an excuse to walk quietly, but Jaken chose that moment to begin berating her for 'annoying everyone with her constant noise', never mind that he'd been chiming in on their conversation the entire time. Rolling her eyes, she waited for the kappa to take a breath and then asked Rin if she ever rode Ah-Un.

"Oh, yes, Fuko-san. I ride Ah-Un when he flies, or when I'm too tired." The little girl's eyes widened as she made an intuitive leap. "But I'm not too tired, Fuko-san! I can walk!"

Fuko hummed—so Rin was the type of child who would deny being sick until she was red with fever. The unbidden denial made it clear she was feeling tired and she was about to argue the little girl's claim when Simon made another decree.

"Rin. You will ride Ah-Un."

"Yes, milord!" The girl fairly sprang onto the dragon's back. So nimble!

Fuko laughed a little. That was one way to get her on off her feet, she supposed.

"Weak human!" Jaken harrumphed.

Fuko watched Rin's face, but was puzzled and relieved when the girl smiled instead of getting her feelings hurt. Jaken clambered up on the moving dragon and pressed his little hand against Rin's forehead, then cupped her cheeks. When he was satisfied she didn't have a fever, he leapt back down. It only took one glance back at the demoness before he began squawking again.

"What are you smiling about, you wretched mongrel? You treacherous trickster! You should learn respect for your betters! I'll hit you with my staff if you don't stop that smiling."

Obligingly, Fuko assumed a look of great sadness with her ears drooped mournfully and Rin giggled.

The lesser demon wailed in frustration and brandished his staff. "You dare mock me? The impertinence! Why, you-"

"Jaken. Why do you let her goad you to such displays?" Fuko blinked in surprise at the demon lord's interruption and Jaken immediately shifted his focus, trotting forward to walk beside him.

"My lord! She's so disrespectful! I defend the honor of your following! She does not offer the proper gratitude to you, and she treats Rin as if she is her pet! The foolish female! She taunts me constantly! She takes liberties where she should not!"

The long list of recriminations continued and Fuko became a little nonplussed as the rant reached the twenty minute mark. That kappa was exceptionally loquacious, and though he very often said the same thing, he never said it the same way. Rin had fallen asleep on Ah-Un, and Fuko began walking closer to the dragon than she ever had before, hoping to keep her from falling off. It was mostly unnecessary because the ryu-beast was being careful and the child was balanced in the hollow between their necks. After forty minutes, the imp was still going strong, but Fuko had tuned him out. Rin was snuffling like a puppy! So cute!

It took the female inu youkai a minute to realize that Un had turned around and his snout was almost touching her ear. She regarded him calmly and curiously, aware that he couldn't snap at her with the muzzle around his mouth. This was her chance to make a good first impression. He sniffed at her. She sniffed at him. Ah glanced at them with one eye before turning back around, disinterested. "Hello, Un." She said quietly. "You're curious about me? I'm curious about you, too."

He gently but firmly pressed his scaly nose into the hair between her ears and began snorting loudly.

It tickled, and she laughed. "Do you like me, or just my smell? Or maybe you just wanted to scratch your nose."

"Ah-Un, you traitor!" Jaken appeared, waving his staff. "Don't consort with that female!"

Ah hissed and Un arched his neck, making a chirping sound. Both looked affronted, and Ah bend his head and knocked Jaken off his feet with his snout, then both trampled him as they continued walking.

"That was a little harsh." Fuko murmured, but continued to walk beside the dragons.

Fuko woke Rin about an hour after noon, guessing that they would stop soon for her lunch. The child was drowsy at first, but gradually remembered the promises of that morning and began to get excited. She hopped down from Ah-Un and began skipping and singing.

"Te-ea and a ba-ath! Wa-ter, wa-ter! So-oo fun! Hot te-ea and hot ba-aths! For ev-er-y-one!"

"What's this?" Jaken demanded. "Tea and hot baths? What are you babbling about, Rin?"

"Fuko-san said that we should have tea and hot baths when we stop for lunch today, and Lord Sesshomaru said 'perhaps'!"

The imp immediately glowered at Fuko. "And just where do you think we'll get tea leaves and enough hot water for a bath? Foolish woman! There are no hot springs around here! How dare you get Rin's hopes up like that?"

Rin looked crushed and Fuko's ears flattened, eyes narrowing on the imp. "I know magic, Master Jaken, and I would not carelessly throw suggestions around just to disappoint someone."

Rin tugged on the sleeve of her kimono to interrupt. "What kinds of magic do you know, Fuko-san?"

She softened immediately as she looked down at the girl. "Fox magic, alchemy, a bit of charm-crafting… a bit of everything, I suppose."

The child smiled and resumed her skipping. "Fu-uko-san! Knows so-oo much! Fu-uko-san! Ma-agic wea-ee-ver!"

"Stop that!" Then Jaken turned to the demoness and scoffed. "You braggart! I've never even heard of this '_alchemy'_! Besides, I know magic, too." He stopped in the middle of the path in front of the girls and proudly produced several slips of paper from his robes. "Look! If I used this, it would spew a noxious mist, and this one would create a full grown tree."

Fuko took one of the papers and then nodded. "Spell-tags, huh? These are well made, too." Then she smiled wryly and held the red tag out for him to read. "This one's for a hot spring."

"Oh!" Rin smiled at the kappa youkai. "You can make a hot spring for everyone to bath in, Master Jaken!"

He looked flustered and scratched at the side of his head. "Oh, well-ah. Quite right, Rin. I suppose that I forgot about that tag."

Fuko hummed and then pointed out. "Your lord is leaving you behind."

With a squawk of alarm Jaken raced away. The demoness tucked the spell tag into her kimono and took Rin's hand. "Let's catch up."

The daiyoukai hadn't gone much farther than around the next bend before stopping, and when they approached, he ordered Rin to find herself something to eat and ordered Jaken to see about the hot spring. Fuko accompanied Rin unbidden, after passing Jaken his spell tag and exchanging a few words—his heated, hers dead-pan. ("My spell! You stole it from me!" "You ran off without it." "Thieving cur!" "I'm returning it to you." "Treacherous female!" "Just take it.") The demoness also noted that Lord Sesshomaru had given her another not-glare, pointedly leaving her out of the instructions. She had still echoed Rin's acknowledgment, as though he told her to accompany the child. Perhaps it wasn't wise to poke fun at him, but she couldn't resist.

"Do you smell anything tasty, Fuko-san?" Rin asked.

She obligingly scented the air, and began walking. "This way." After reaching a small clearing, Fuko turned to the girl and gestured. "There should be more than enough here. See what you can gather from this clearing, Rin-chan, and I'll go look for more ingredients for the tea."

She responded enthusiastically to the task and Fuko was glad to see that morning's nap had helped her so much. Being an inu youkai, it was simple enough to sniff out an herb to complement the citrus rinds while keeping an ear out for Rin, and even found a bee hive in the hollow of a tree. Fox magic produced a container for a bit of honey, and she moved fast enough to avoid the insects notice completely. On her way back to the girl, she scented something that gave her an idea, and she gathered some of the plant before moving on. She found Rin flitting around the clearing with a wide verity of flora filling the basket she'd fashioned by holding up the edge of her little checkered kosode. This was a trick every child should know, Fuko observed, and she was glad that the girl possessed this token of childhood.

"Look, Fuko-san! There is so much here!"

Fuko crouched, holding the honey-pot against her thigh to minimize its presence. "Let me see."

Rin presented her loot and Fuko smiled, noting happily that everything the girl had pick was edible and would take little preparation. "You've got a bit of everything, don't you? Can you eat all that?"

She nodded proudly. "Lord Sesshomaru says not to take more than I can eat when there's so much food around."

This wasn't the first time Rin had quoted the daiyoukai's advice. It was plain fact that the girl thought the demon hung the moon. Fuko nodded sagely and replied. "That's a smart policy."

Rin frowned suddenly and said. "Lord Sesshomaru is smart! And really strong! And pretty!"

The moon and the stars, too, it seemed. "I agree."

"You do?" Rin looked disbelieving. "You frown at him sometimes."

Fuko's ears bobbed. "Only because he confuses me. Isn't he confusing?"

The girl hummed, not denying that assertion, but amending it. "Sometimes, but Lord Sesshomaru is nice." She wiggled her toes in the grass and seemed about to add something, but then nodded resolutely. "Really nice."

It was Fuko's turn to hum. "He does nice things."

Rin shook her head and looked at her determinately. "Lord Sesshomaru is nice."

The demoness stilled and considered her words and the way that she meant them, staring into her eyes. The girl wasn't expressing an opinion here, right or wrong, she was making a statement. "Lord Sesshomaru is nice." Fuko repeated dutifully, and was rewarded with a heart-warming smile.

Toes wiggling again, the little girl added shyly. "Add Lord Sesshomaru likes when nice things are done for him."

"I understand." Fuko assured, wondering if the girl was a natural mediator or if someone taught her.

Rin bunched the front of her kosode in one hand, took Fuko's hand in the other, and tugged her to her feet. "Let's go!"

Back where Ah-Un waited, Fuko built a little fire and helped Rin wash her findings with the water from a large bamboo-shoot container that had been in the saddlebag. Both Lord Sesshomaru and Jaken were gone, though she could sense the Staff of Two-Heads not too far away. And the youki of a strange demon was there as well, she realized. For a second, she considered checking on the imp, but decided his master would have sounded some alarm if there were danger nearby. Fuko foxed up a large clay teapot, much to Rin's delight, and set some water to boiling. She furtively tucked the honey pot where Rin wouldn't see and then laid out the ingredients she'd found on some large tree leaves. "What do you think, Rin-chan?" Fuko shuffled some of the herbs, changing their positions. "What will we add to the tea?"

Rin looked up from her roasting veggies and paused in nibbling her assorted berries and nuts. "I liked the oranges from this morning." She touched the rinds and then poked around the other leaves. "Those flowers are pretty."

"That's wild jasmine. Smell."

"Mmm! Rin's had that in tea before!" The girl blushed. "I mean, _I_ have had that in tea before."

"Well then. You'll just have to have it again." Fuko rearranged the order, pushing away the herbs she wouldn't need and then picking the right amounts for the blend. She arranged the herbs that would combine for a full-bodied taste in a small row close to her knees, then poked and prodded at them. Not too much jasmine, maybe a little more of the thistle? All of the rinds, she'd only kept enough for the tea. Humming industriously, she configured recipe, not going for anything too daring. She wasn't in the mood for a sharp flavor, but she definitely wanted citrus and jasmine at the forefront. She sniffed and absently reminded Rin not to burn her food. After fussing with taste theory a bit more and deciding she was satisfied with the bouquet, she foxed up a stone platter, again to Rin's amazement, and carefully tilted the chosen off their leaves and into its the center one by one.

Master Jaken approached from the direction that now smelled of steam and minerals. Rin waved. "Hello, Master Jaken. Did you make the hot spring?"

"I did, ungrateful girl." Then he glowered at Fuko and drew nearer. "What do you think you're doing? Untrustworthy dog! Are you trying to poison Rin?"

Fuko didn't pause in her work. "Nope."

The imp sputtered. "_Nope?_ Impertinent woman! I'm serious!"

"Okay." She gave the mixture one more sniff. Too much jasmine?

"Are you listening to me?" He screamed to her ear.

Fuko conjured a sphere of blue fox fire which flared impressively, licking at her wrist and seeping down her arm. Jaken leapt back with a gratifying effeminate squeal. She flashed him some fang. "Be careful, Master Jaken. These flames are unforgiving." She stifled the sphere a bit before dropping it onto the stone platter. It flickered, looking about to go out, but then caught on and began consuming all the moisture in the fresh tea ingredients.

"Hn."

Fuko glanced over her shoulder. "Oh, hello." She stopped herself from adding 'You startled me.' or asking 'Where did you come from?'. Sneaky dog.

"Lord Sesshomaru!"

"M-milord!"

Both went to him, speaking at once about what they had done in the short time they were apart. Fuko would have said they were reporting to him like soldiers if they both weren't so eager. Even Ah-Un made greeting sounds before going back to resting their heads on the ground. Thoughtful, she took Rin's food off the fire and laid it on some of the empty leaves, flaring her youki very slightly to keep insects away. As the blue fire petered out, she made a rolling-pin type tool that had a blunt cutting edge instead of a flat surface and kept one ear pointed toward the others as she crushed the dried herbs to prepared them for steeping, making no effort to hide her interest. It seemed as though Jaken had summoned some lesser demon to dig a pool and line it with rocks, which she found significant. He hadn't seemed the type to have others under his command. After Rin had stopped talking and Jaken had stopped saying pertinent things, Lord Sesshomaru made that sound he always made and walked away from them toward a shade tree near Ah-Un.

Rin raced back over and looked at the cooking fire. "Did I burn the food?"

"No, I took care of it."

Rin plopped down and began testing the temperature of the cooked veggies with her finger-tips. "Thank you, Fuko-san!" Fuko was tending the teapot, which contained the herbs now, so she didn't see Rin reach for the little clay pot left next to the stone platter.

"What's-" The sound of ceramic clinking alerted her. "Oh!"

Fuko turned. "You found the honey, I see."

"Honey!" She squealed. "Honey! How did you get honey?"

"Luck and bees." Fuko shrugged casually. "Here." She took the container and spilled a dollop into the teapot. Sniffing, she added just a bit more, and then passed it back to Rin. "A drizzle of that would go well with your food."

Rin carefully tilted the pot and masterfully poured a few thin strands over the tree leaves that held her cooked food. Fuko complemented her on her artful pouring, and then stood. "Itadakimasu!"

She smiled adorably and echoed the sentiment before digging in.

Fuko turned and began walking toward Ah-Un, patting herself in consternation. Where was that plant? She'd tucked it in somewhere so she wouldn't take it out with the tea things, now she wasn't sure where it was. She drew out a fistful of small items. No. She replaced them and tried again. Ah-ha! Just as she drew out the bundled leaves, she felt the daiyoukai's aura begin to stir in a disagreeable manner. She glanced at him, saw he had leveled a cold glare at her, and then she looked pointedly at Ah-Un. She also changed her course, making it clear she had no intention of invading his personal space. Experience said that the look meant he was going to do something soon, and she hoped that the something involved building bridges. She could feel the glare remain until she stopped in front of the ryu-beast, and by then dragons were aware of the agitated energies. Un perked up and looked back and forth between the two inu youkai and Ah grunted at her, but turned away without lifting his head.

"Hello, Ah. Hello, Un. I found this plant, and I thought you two might like it. I've met dragons who enjoy the flavor." She held up one of the small fern fronds and kept it still for Un to sniff. He chirped. "You like it? Here." Fuko reached up to unlatch the muzzle he wore, but Jaken ran over.

"Don't touch him!" He took a swing at her shins, but she stepped back and he didn't try it again. "You are not to remove Ah-Un's muzzle! Foolish woman! He may be an herbivore, but he is dangerous!"

Fuko rolled her eyes. "Would you take it off, then, Master Jaken?"

"And why would I do that? So you can tempt him with your silly plant? No!"

As he gave this predicable response, the demoness considered him. "Okay." She replied. "If you're afraid of him, then I'll just-"

"Afraid! Who said anything about being afraid?" The imp stomped his foot. "Disrespectful dog! I'm not afraid of this dumb beast!" He jumped up and quickly freed Un, and then Ah. "Those with superior intellect never need fear-" He screamed as Ah took his head in his mouth and lifted him off the ground.

"I thought you said he was an herbivore." Fuko said, crossing her arms in front of her and lifting one hand to cover her grin. She had thought about shaking the toad just like that a few times in the past two days.

After a few minutes, Jaken escaped. Both dragons had their necked arched in affront, but when Fuko presented the fronds again, Un relented. He took a mouthful and munched contentedly and Fuko took a chance and patted his neck. Like most dragons she'd met, he wasn't cold to the touch, but when she petting the skin where his neck joined his chest, it was cool. "Not a fire breather, huh? Let me think about that." Un looked down at her, still chewing. She looked from him to Ah, who had put his head back down and was ignoring her. "Your brother doesn't want any? I thought it would be a really nice treat."

Un chittered at Ah and Ah grunted and turned his head even further away.

"That's okay." Fuko put the rest of what she'd picked on the ground, and bowed to the unusual brothers. "Later, you two." Fuko made her way over to the fire, aware that Ah had started sniffing the fronds as soon as she turned around. Contrary dragon.

The demoness arranged the four clay cups she'd pulled from the soil, began to pour in that special polite way that had been drilled into her head by the woman who raised her, and then she served Rin her cup.

"Thank you, Fuko-san!" Rin lifted the cup, sampled the tea, and gave a satisfied sigh. "Perfect."

"Why, thank you." She nudged the third cup toward the girl and, in the spirit of being nice, said. "Why don't you go serve Master Jaken, and I'll take Lord Sesshomaru his cup?"

Her sweet brown eyes brightened and she grinned. Fuko thought she would reach out and hug her, but she simply nodded and said. "Okay!"

The little girl shot off, amazingly not scalding herself with the tea, and Fuko carefully took her tea and the cup intended for Lord Sesshomaru in each hand. As she stood and turned, she reminded herself of all the times she'd rehearsed what she would say and only to have the words come out awkward and stilted. So, she didn't think, and approached the daiyoukai as she would anyone else who could potentially kill her, but might not do it right that second. When she reached him and stood as close as she had ever been without her spear in her hands, he didn't acknowledge her. He'd heard her say she was coming over, she was sure. After a few moments, she began to lose interest in gaining favor and simply wanted him to take the tea. They still needed to take their bathes, didn't they? And she had assumed that they would also be washing Rin's clothes, since the kosode would be just as dirty as the girl.

She sidestepped into his direct line of vision and crouched. "Tea?"

Amber eyes snapped into focus, and Fuko felt a little like she had touched a charged electrical wire. Could electricity be so cold? Hmm. She held out his cup.

…He took it and his claws grated audibly over the fired clay.

She waited, meeting his emotionless eyes, and then renewed her patience and waited some more. _So cold._

Not dropping her gaze, he took a slow sip.

She copied him and her ears bobbed. "I apologize. There's too much jasmine in the blend, isn't there?"

His eyes narrowed and unfocused to ignore her again. Confused, Fuko returned to the cooking fire and took another sip of the tea (which, if truth were to be told, _did_ taste a little too strongly of the flower). She considered the micro-expression that had crossed Lord Sesshomaru's face. It had been chilling, yes, but it also showed the roiling anger hiding behind his façade. An offer of tea hadn't helped at all. To keep the eruption on the horizon from happening, she would have to dosomething before he did. It was part three of her plan to keep Rin from being over stressed, and though it was a variation on part two, she thought that the enormity of the task deserved special treatment.

To be honest, she wasn't looking forward to it at all. Making friends with adults was far more complicated than making friends with children. 'Complicated' wasn't her chosen word for it, but maybe 'dangerous' was too harsh. That was how she felt, anyway. She could count on her fingers the number of adults she had developed friendships with. She was awkward when alone with them, and she was aware it was a fault born from her childhood. Looking back on those early years, she remembered that she'd never liked big people. In the human village that was the first home she could recall, the adults had ostracized her, blaming her for whatever bad luck they could twist into a sign from the kami. Her first encounter with an adult youkai almost ended in live digestion. Over time and with a lot of trial and error, she'd learned to deal with the older people that she encountered, and admitted to herself now that she was only truly comfortable around adults when she knew she could escape.

Shaking the memories away, she focused on the child in front of her. Rin was visibly excited about the nice thing Fuko had done for her lord, but recognized that it hadn't been a complete success. "Did he like the tea?" She asked in a loud whisper.

Fuko replied in the same manner. "I'm not sure. I think I didn't measure it correctly."

During continued polite tea conversation, she encouraged Rin to drink three full cups, trying to optimize the effects of the orange rinds, and then she stacked their two empty cups and asked. "Ready for a bath?"

"Yes!" The girl stood and said quickly. "I bathe with Ah-Un when he's with us! Do you want to bathe with me and Ah-Un?" It must have been a rhetorical question, because she looked over her head to where the daiyoukai sat far behind her without waiting for a reply. "Lord Sesshomaru, can I take a bath with Fuko-san and Ah-Un?"

"Do as you please, Rin."

"Yay!" Then, in an aside to Fuko. "That means yes. Let's go!"

Ah-Un needed no direction to the hot spring and Rin followed him without hesitation, and since Fuko would have to scent it out, she followed the girl. The spring turned out to be really nice. It was a perfect oval with a sandy bottom and large black boulders ringing the far edge, graduating in depth toward them. It was set near a ridge made of the same dark stone and fit so naturally there that it was easy to pretend that the spring had been there for centuries. She especially appreciated the fact that it didn't have that putrid scent some of the hot springs she'd visited possessed. Rin shed her clothes as soon as the water was in sight, shouting with glee and racing toward it. She knew better than to rush right in, didn't she? The girl didn't slow as she got within five feet, and Fuko could see her intention to jump. Apparently not. Fuko kicked off her boots and raced there ahead of her, startling her into stopping at the water's edge.

"Let me check the temperature, you fearless little girl!" Fuko said playfully, and dipped one delicately clawed toe in the water. "Oooh, that's nice. But remember, hot springs can be unpredictable. Some of them look inviting, but will boil you alive." The girl goggled and Fuko laughed. "This one's safe enough." She continued, gesturing grandly. "Your bath awaits, my lady."

Rin grinned and bowed to her, speaking in solemn tones. "Thank you very much, Fuko-san." She then dipped her foot in the water just as she had and said. "Oh, that's very hot!"

"Go slowly." Fuko advised, and turned to Ah-Un. "Are you two getting in?"

They vocalized and settled down on the shore.

"Right." Fuko collected her boots and walked over to where Rin had left her clothes, pulling at the knot of her obi as she did so. "Aren't you going to wash this, Rin-chan?"

"After!" She answered, already waist deep in the water.

Fuko picked up her clothes and laid them on a convent rock, then finished disrobing and put her clothes there as well, along with her spear. Then, she pulled a stringy dried root from the folds of her clothes and returned to Rin. Once they were both seated up to their shoulders with their heads having been dunked a few times, she showed Rin the sudsy properties of the root and they spent a few minutes making as many bubbles as possible. Then she stood the girl up and encouraged her to use the bubbles for the intended purpose and scrub herself, leading by example. She had finished washing the girls back and was sitting in the water to allow her to return the favor when Rin asked.

"What happened to your hair right here, Fuko-san?" The girl tugged a lock at the back of her head. "It's much shorter than all the rest."

"What?" Fuko reached back and felt around. Sure enough, the section of hair that Rin pulled ended only at mid-back when it usually reached mid-bottom. "Wait. That's right…" At one point in her battle with Sesshomaru, his whip had nearly touched her face, and she'd been forced to duck it to avoid being blinded. He must have connected with her braid. Now that she thought about it, her hair had come undone just before he wrapped that hazardous weapon around her spear, and she hadn't even thought about braiding it again since. She frowned to herself. The hair tie she'd used to bind the rope of hair at the bottom had been a gift! She'd had it so long that it had started fray, but she had meant to repair it. "Shoot." She grumbled, ears drooping.

"What's wrong?" Rin asked. "Are you sad about your hair? You can't tell unless you comb your fingers through it." She demonstrated, and Fuko could feel where she came up short.

"No, I'm not sad, really. It will grow back. I just realized that I lost my hair tie, though."

"You can use mine." Rin offered.

Fuko spun and cupped the little girl's face. "Squee! Aren't you just the most darling little human? You're so cuuuuute!"

They both dissolved into giggles, and then into a splash fight which involved a lot of squealing and shouting. After a few minutes, Ah-Un, who stayed well away from their tom-foolery, groaned at them and stood. Fuko could guess the reason. The daiyoukai's aura was doing that malevolent roiling again, and it felt as if he was expanding it toward her.

"Wait, wait!" She finally had to pick the girl up, lifting her out of reach of the water to stop her from splashing. "I think your Lord Sesshomaru wants us to finish up. He's poking me with his youki."

Rin squirmed in the air. "Okay! It's cold up here!"

Fuko placed the girl back in to water, suffered one more splash, and then leapt out of the pool and far onto the shore. Then she shook, flinging water high and far, earning peals of laughter from Rin and warbling protests from Ah-Un. The girl started to wade out, but she stopped her. "Just a second, Rin-chan. Stay." She pulled wads of leaves and bark from a low hanging branch and foxed them into a bath-sheet. "Okay, come here quick."

Rin floundered out of the water and paused to shake, mimicking her and earning much the same reaction. Fuko trotted over and started to rub the still-wet girl down with the cloth. It seemed that she didn't have the same mastery over shaking herself dry as Fuko had, but it was just as well. As a dog demon, she'd always been best at it.

"What is this, Fuko-san?" Rin asked when Fuko walked away get to her clothes. She picked at the cloth that swaddled her head to toe. "It's really soft, but it's rough too."

"It's terry-cloth." Fuko explained the exotic cloth and how she came to know of it as she pulled on her clothes and brought Rin hers. Then she said. "I don't think we have time to wash this properly, so I'll clean it quickly with my fox magic, okay?"

Rin nodded and bunched the bath-sheet tighter around her. Fuko made quick work of it, and then gave the child's head a final through drying before letting her drop the sheet and dress. After they quickly finger-combed their hair and Rin fixed her little pony-tail, the girl stretched. "Thank you, Fuko-san." She said, and then yawned.

Fuko offered another piggy-back ride, but Rin insisted that she wasn't tried. When they made it back to the others, Jaken yelled at them (mostly Fuko) for taking so long while Lord Sesshomaru looked on. He stood on the edge of the clearing, clearly waiting for them to be ready. At least he had calmed his youki, Fuko thought.

The day camp was deconstructed and the fox magic wares were returned to their original states, which were dirt, rocks and leaves. Before they left, Lord Sesshomaru ordered Rin to ride Ah-Un, and the pace he set was demanding. Eventually, Jaken had to ride the beast, too. They spoke sparingly in the hours leading to dark, and when they made camp, Rin started pulling out her bedding before even thinking about food. Jaken practically burst a blood vessel while scolding the girl, telling her she was stupid and ungrateful for not being hungry when he'd gone to all the trouble of bringing her something to eat, and just as Rin started to get watery-eyed, Sesshomaru spoke.

"Silence." Jaken fell to the ground as the demon lord's boot ground into his back. "If finding Rin a few scraps to eat is too much work for you, Jaken, then perhaps you would prefer that I give your role to someone else." The imp started to protest, but he was cut off with a quiet growl. "You are trying my patience."

The toad cowered for only two seconds after the daiyoukai moved away, but then he leapt up and wordlessly took Rin's dinner over to the quiet little girl. Rin began eating steadily.

Fuko watched her eat alongside Jaken, offering silent encouragement with her eyes. She hadn't stepped in because she, unlike the imp, noticed Lord Sesshomaru's youki growing tense. It was apparently his role to keep Jaken from berating the little girl. As she resolved from the beginning, she had no intention of usurping anyone's position.

Though she was tired, Rin was a little too jazzed to fall asleep as easily as she had the last two nights, and she lay on her tummy for a long time, looking around at everyone in the camp. Finally, she said. "Thank you, Master Jaken."

He was quiet for a second before answering. "You are welcome, Rin."

She wiggled around. "Goodnight, Master Jaken."

He crossed his arms and hunched his shoulders. "Goodnight, Rin."

She smiled softly, and Fuko saw her eyes drooping. "Goodnight, Ah. Goodnight, Un."

The beasts rumbled companionably.

"Goodnight, Fuko-san."

"Goodnight, Rin-chan."

She squirmed and closed her eyes. "Goodnight, Lord Sesshomaru."

"Goodnight, Rin. Go to sleep."

Fuko could sense that the girl was already sleeping when she mumbled. "Yes, milord."

As soon as Rin was deeply asleep, Lord Sesshomaru left. Fuko wondered where he was going, but decided everyone deserved privacy and thought about something else. Like Jaken. His outburst at Rin seemed more stress induced than anything, and if his constant battering of her eardrums was any indication, she was the focus of his true anger. But why did her presence upset him to the point where he would lash out at Rin like that? As far as she knew, the demoness hadn't done a thing to the little youkai, except in defense. Fuko's eyes flicked over Rin and Ah-Un, who were all sleeping, and then she looked to Jaken, who was sullenly poking at the camp fire with a stick. He must have felt her gaze, because he glanced over his shoulder. When he saw her looking at him, he scowled and opened his mouth, but closed it when she pointed to Rin. Why was he so ready to yell at her? She moved toward the fire, intent on finding out.

"So, Jaken." She said, settling down next to him. "Do you have something you want to say to me?"

His mouth opened wide and he said half a word at full volume, but she made a violent cutting motion with her hand and directed his gaze to Rin once again. He began again, grumbling in low tones and clutching his staff in his lap. "_Yes_. I _do_ have something I want to say to you. Treacherous female." He muttered some more mean spirited things, and then said. "I demand to know what you did to Lord Sesshomaru."

She blinked. "What I did to Lord Sesshomaru?"

He growled impressively for an imp. "Don't pretend. Two days before you began traveling with us, milord received a mysterious missive. A day passes without word and then he comes back with you tagging along. Lord Sesshomaru was intent on ending you, toymaker, after days of your damned evasive cowardice. I demand to know how you bewitched him!"

"Oh, I suppose you never did learn what happened." Fuko murmured. "The note was mine. I left it under your hat while you slept." She continued over his sputtering. "I challenged your Lord Sesshomaru to a duel, with the stakes being my following him versus… I think he wanted my life, but he never made that quite clear. Anyway, I won."

The toad lifted his staff and swung at her head, but she caught it and pulled it out of his hands. "_Now_ what?" Perturbed, she shoved him back to the ground when he flew at her face with little claws slashing. She kept her hand on his back while he flailed, and this lasted for a surprisingly long time, but her hand was nigh but immovable for the toad.

Panting, he snapped his first coherent words since his attack. "You could never have beaten Lord Sesshomaru!"

Fuko rolled her eyes and removed her hand. "That's how it turned out. What do _you_ think happened?"

He jumped up, huffing and puffing. "You-you must have…" The imp threw up his hands. "I don't know! He never tells me anything! But I'll make sure you don't take advantage of him again! I swear it! I may not be able to kill you, but I'll make your life miserable until you leave him alone!"

She cocked her head. "So you're trying to drive me away to protect Lord Sesshomaru?"

"Yes!"

Truly confused, she asked. "But, why?"

"You want to know _why_? Lord Sesshomaru might appear emotionless on the outside, but inside he's roiling mass of emotions! I've been following him for decades and I can tell when he's distressed! He meant to kill you, now he glares and broods! You're traveling with us, which Lord Sesshomaru would never have allowed! You tricked him, and I won't let you get away with it! I own him far too much to ever allow a mutt like you to get the best of him!"

With this fit of words, Fuko understood and was amazed. "You're very devoted to him, aren't you?"

He looked affronted. "Of course I am! It's a privilege to serve such a great and noble lord. I owe Lord Sesshomaru my life!"

Fuko rested her chin on heels of her hands and pricked her ears. "Please tell me about that, Master Jaken."

The kappa paused, his ire abating. Maybe it was something in her eyes, or maybe he just couldn't resist the opportunity to extol on his lord's merits, but he began spinning a tale of strife, war, and then a gleaming moment of salvation. At its end, Jaken was seated across from her with his eyes shining with treasured memories. "When I thought my life was at its end, Lord Sesshomaru appeared and saved me. He destroyed the enemy with scarcely a flick of his wrist. He was so powerful, so regal, so awesome in his stature. I vowed to serve him that very instant. When he gave me the Staff of Two Heads, it was the proudest moment of my long life." Unshed tears collected in the corners of his eyes. "To know that this lowly vassal could be of use to such a great demon…!"

She gave a watery smile, moved to tears as well. "You fell in love with him."

Jaken face-planted, which surprised a laugh out of Fuko. He popped up from the ground and sputtered loudly. "W-w-w-what?"

Aware of Rin moving in her sleep, Fuko waved her hands in front of Jaken in an effort to shush him and continued. "When you saw him, your heart, perhaps your very soul recognized your true calling!" She clenched her fists, nailing him with a look of intensity, and her youki sparked. "When you followed him, leaving all of your past behind, you followed your heart, Master Jaken! To feel such purpose, to find your reason for being here, and then having the courage to _go for it!_ That's not just commendable, that's amazing!" She leaned toward him, and he leaned forward as well, entranced by her conviction. "At that moment, the moment you were moved to pledge yourself to him, weren't you enflamed, Master Jaken? Didn't your heart race?"

The kappa youkai nodded enthusiastically, weeping openly. "Yes! Yes, I was! It did! I knew it was my calling! I knew!"

"And it was what you wanted deepest in your heart, wasn't it? To be in the presence of such admirable power? Not because you wanted it for yourself, but because you wanted to bear witness to all that that shinning demon lord would accomplish?"

He leapt to his feet. "Yes! Yes!"

Fuko clapped her hands down on his shoulders, partially to keep him from flying apart, partially because it felt right. "You saw it, Jaken! When he saved your life, when he slew your enemies with such ease, you saw his potential and you believed in him! You've believed in him ever since!"

Overwhelmed with emotion, the imp pressed his face into his sleeve and blubbered. "It's all true! You understand, you truly understand!"

Fuko nodded, heart-felt. "You fell in love with him, and it was the love of a loyal servant!"

"I did! I did fall in love with Lord Sesshomaru!"

"Jaken!"

Fuko started and the imp exploded out from under her hands.

"LORD SESSHOMARU!" Jaken ran back and forth in an absolute panic, his face a festive mix of red and green. "My Lord! I-I didn't-! What I meant to say-! I-! My Lord, I-!"

Fuko clenched her fists again, youki sparking, and tried to offer encouragement. "Don't be ashamed of your love, Jaken! You are his loyal servant!"

He stopped and clutched his head, wailing at her. "You shut up, you foul wench! This is all your fault!" He spun, flailing his arms desperately. "Please, milord! I didn't mean to say it! She made me say it! I don't know what came over me! I never meant-"

The demon lord turned on his heel and strode back the way he'd come.

"Milord! Please, wait for me!" Jaken ran off into the dark, but Fuko heard a cry of pain and waited patiently as Jaken came dejectedly back with several new lumps.

He plopped down in front of the fire beside her and they sat in silence for several moments before she spoke. "Neither of you may wish to say it and neither of you may wish to hear it, but you are his devoted servant, Jaken, and I believe he must love you very much."

The kappa youkai sputtered and turned away, but not before she noticed that his face was still very red. Smiling softly, she looked over at Rin, and then shook her head in disbelief. How could the girl sleep through that racket?

As the silence stretched, Fuko settled into her own thoughts again. It seemed, for all his foul temper toward her, Lord Sesshomaru was actually a decent person. He'd earned the love a little human girl, the devotion of a grumpy toad demon, and had a fascinating quasi-horse dragon with two heads that didn't always agree. He must be more special than she was giving him credit for, and the combination of Rin's solemn statement and Jaken's abiding belief made her more determined to breach the gulf between them. So what if he was an adult? She was too, kinda. She could figure him out and gain a moment of understanding with him as she had with the imp. She would, and not only for Rin-chan's sake. But, as the conservative goals of part three of her current working plan showed, that was easier said than done. Plus, Ah wasn't yet comfortable with her, and all she could hope from this first half-pleasant exchange with Master Jaken was his lessened inclination to drive her away. Right. So, first things first.

Fuko puzzled over what she had observed of the Western Lord in hopes of finding a way to put him at ease. She made some educated guesses, the first of them being that he loved Rin. He listened to her whenever she spoke to him, and despite he's habitual silence, she reacted to his quiet grunts as if he'd actually spoken. They understood each other. Fuko had no reference for how long they'd been together, besides the fact that the girl appeared to be nine or ten and remembered her first family somewhat. That could mean he raised her for anywhere from one to five years, not even accounting the vague 'long time' in which the girl was alone. Rin saw him as a father of sorts, and Fuko decided that he must see her as his child. Fuko's second guess was that the demon did at least appreciate Master Jaken. All she had really seen of the imp was bluster and minor magic wielding, but since he'd been in Lord Sesshomaru's company for decades, he must be very useful. Useful enough to outweigh his loud and needy nature. Her third guess came from Ah-Un, and it was the dragon's easy disposition and general contentedness that convinced her that Lord Sesshomaru must be very responsible and patient. She had no way of knowing if he was a favored and loyal steed or a convenient beast of burden, but she knew that he was well looked after. She had heard it said before that one could accurately judge someone by how they treated the animals under their care. By Ah-Un's measure, the inu youkai could be a saint.

She also considered some of the negatives that arose from analyzing his relationships with his little pack. Fuko had yet to see him embrace Rin, though he allowed her small contacts with his person and once laid his hand on her head as she spoke to him. This didn't really tell her anything new. It was obvious that he was a reserved demon. He also seemed ready and willing to perpetuate Jaken's belief that he was perfect, though he'd made it violently clear to the imp that he didn't appreciate his constant praise. Did he really think that he was anywhere near infallible? Also, why wasn't Ah-Un free and in the wild? She sighed at this thought. That didn't reflect on Lord Sesshomaru's personality at all, just her views on animal rights.

Fuko refocused. What did this mean for her? He was reserved, as many adults were, and he had a massive amount of self-esteem. Her winning the challenge injured his pride, and his veiled anger told her that the injury was festering. He wouldn't want an apology. That would seem like pity. Maybe he'd like a re-match. The idea ruminated in her mind and grew in strength. Now that she thought about it, he was a male, wasn't he? If she disregarded his age, the plan would be perfect. Tough little demon boys would often welcome a punch more than a hug, having grown up with that warrior instinct. In fact, one of her favorite ways to pull any sulking boy out of his mood was to start a bout of rough-housing. Come to think of it, Lord Sesshomaru had been sort of _sulking, _hadn't he? Like a frustrated boy. Andthe healing of the Chikyukiba sometimes had the side-effect of nagging frustration. This was because, in order to speed healing, it returned a person's energies to one hundred plus percent by injecting the earth's vital force into one's aura. Without outlet for all that stored energy, no wonder he was acting like this! She smacked herself in the head with the heel of her hand. Of course sparring was the answer!

But how the heck was she supposed to start a friendly sparring match when he always seemed two minutes from ripping her head off? Fuko sighed. She would just have to watch for her moment.

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The next evening found the group on the upper ledge of a wide plain bisected by a ridge that boasted a twenty foot drop before continuing in the same grassy fashion. A series of small clear streams traversed the top, joining together at several points until they were one, and under the sliver of moon, the water shone silver before flowing over the ridge in a waterfall. Rin was enchanted by the location and raced about, jumping over the small streams, chasing crickets, laughing. It was a beautiful picture.

Sesshomaru could not appreciate the view when the female was a part of it, playing with Rin while Jaken tended the small fire. He could not appreciate the view while she smiled and laughed, and slyly insinuated herself into his pack. And he could not appreciate the view when the whole of his baser instincts paced and growled inside him, as it had for days, slavering after the chance to prove his dominance.

He had kept his control when she bent Rin to her will with little more than a glance. She was just a child, unable to resist the lures of play and attention. He had simply looked on when she tried to bribe the dragon with food. At least one of the two heads had the sense at the time to remember where his allegiance should lie. Jaken had been the only hold out after traveling just three days, but his resistance was failing. Sesshomaru had had a full night to stew over the unacceptable scene he had walked in on, Jaken _confiding_ in the interloper, an unspeakable thing, a _revolting_ thing—but, no. He had resolved not to think of that. This passed day of travel hinted at a future outcome that disgusted him. She had done much the same as she had from the beginning, but the child, the dragon, and now the imp showed signs of accepting her presence unconsciously. That morning, Rin had happily eaten the rabbit the female hunted for her, and at the mid-day stop, both heads of the dragon-beast had groaned blissfully as she scratched and petted them. Earlier, when Jaken had removed the dragon's saddle rigging and halter to oil them, he had allowed the female to help with barely more than ten minutes of insults. To him, her intentions were clear. By manipulating Rin's affections, ingratiating herself with the ryu-beast, and managing Jaken with appalling dexterity, she was trying to assume the position of alpha female, a role she had no business vying for and no hope of attaining. She would remain an interloper until he decided she was not, and he had no intention of doing so.

And she was doing a disgustingly poor job trying to convince him otherwise, he thought to himself as Rin ran over to the imp, panting, and fell onto her knees beside him. The female sat on the other side of the girl, telling her some nonsense he ignored, and then in a lull as Rin was distracted by food, she looked over and met his gaze. She did not drop her eyes, she failed to cringe or cower, she did not even have the good grace to be wary. No, she was not trying to convince him that she would make a good pack member, for, as evidenced by furious snarl of his inner beast, her bold gaze offended him to the core. She had been offending him this way increasingly since he allowed her follow him, and incessantly since the 'incident' of the previous night.

The veneer of polite society that overlaid the demon nobles across the land was in part only a cover for their base instincts, a series of reasoning and rules to keep them from devolving to the level of minor demons that were no more than strong animals. For this reason, the submissiveness of inu youkai females was more a means for enticing an attractive male than a trait bred or taught. A dog demon male's instincts would vie for the strongest female he could, for the good of any pups, but any self-respecting male would only choose the strongest he could dominate, for life under the thumb of a demoness meant more than dishonor. It frequently meant death, whether by a rival male or the female herself. The only way for a male to assure her complete faithfulness without instating a binding mating contract was to find the balance between her power and his weakness that would keep her fearful for her life if she betrayed him. An inu youkai female could be a sadistic shrew to a male she thought weak, and a demure little hime to one she was interested in trapping. Cunning along with strength was what a powerful demoness passed on to help her daughters gain status.

However, Lord Sesshomaru had no fear of being snared by a clever bitch. He was the most powerful among the inu daiyoukai and the inu had been proved in his father's time to be the most powerful youkai in the world. He dabbled and toyed with the female populace as he pleased with impunity, never siring children and never making any useless associations.

This particular female did not show submissiveness or attempt to challenge him for dominance. She was ignoring him, for all intents and purposes. Oh, she offered some paltry niceties when Rin directed her to, but she had yet offer any words of substance. Did she think, because she had beaten him once, he was of no use to her, whether it be for future alliances or fleeting pleasure? No. Even she must realize he would crush her if the battle was fought on raw youki alone. She would also realize that he now knew where to strike in order to disable her, and which of her tactics to beware of. Perhaps she was not searching for a tryst at the moment, though many supposedly settled females had offered him their bodies. That did not explain why she made no attempt to sway him toward her cause, whatever it may be. He glared at her back as she settled Rin into her furs to sleep and smoothed her hand over the girl's hair. She was certainly making a point to act maternal in his presence. Did she think he would be foolish enough to pup her?

She glanced at him again, but he had shifted his gaze to the far horizon. In the peripheral of his vision, he saw the dipping movement atop her head and he's annoyance piqued. He found her ears utterly ridiculous and slightly offensive. As far as he knew, the gesture meant nothing, but it was off putting. She was an odd creature.

He stood and walked away from the camp the moment Rin was asleep, putting the disturbing female out of his head. For the past three days, he had taken them across an abandoned region in his direct route to the Western Lands. He understood that some foolish human warlord had torn through a year ago, and while the animals and forest had recovered, many of the demons and human peasants had yet to return. They were now on the edge of a heavily populated territory mostly controlled by forest demons, and he knew some fool would eventually try an attack. He usually felt no more than mild annoyance at the lesser demons who mistakenly thought they were a match for him, but now he looked forward to reminding those in this backwater scrap of land what true power felt like. Deeper into the forest, he found what he was looking for in the form of a giant demon asp, easily half again as big as his true form. Apparently, he had disturbed its feeding on a herd of deer, and it attacked viscously, but he learned its full measure in only a few dodges. Frustrated with its weakness, he obliterated it entirely with his bare claws, an unnecessary show of strength that had not even offered any of the satisfaction he needed. Afterward, he could sense the nearby youkai had gone into hiding, and he was even more deeply frustrated. He reluctantly headed back to camp.

He entered the open plain at the extreme opposite point of the group, and walked across the lower plain to the crashing waterfall and paused before it. The pool at the bottom was deep and appealingly clear, but he was not tempted to swim. The pitifully short battle with the snake had merely whetted his appetites, and if he went back to face that accursed female as he was, he would do something regretful.

As he often did when life did not put forward challenges when and where he wished, Sesshomaru laid aside his swords and started a kata. It began with a wide stance and meditation, which tapped into his youki and allowed for maximum control. It took longer than it should have to empty his mind and the knowledge of this exacerbated his distraction, but he mastered his thoughts in an adequate span of time. His power responded with an unusual vigor, and he took the time to meticulously shape it into the proper form before he began the precise motions of the exercise. With his aura shimmering visibly along his skin, he began his first extension, feeling the total tautness of his body and focusing on relieving it. After some time, he completed his first kata and began a more strenuous one, not satisfied with the previous results. His muscles were barely warmed when he started a third kata which was one of the most advanced he knew. It focused primarily on strength, but he adapted it to test his speed and precision as well. When he completed the exercise, he began it again without hesitation. During his fourth repetition, he felt a surge of frustration he had to beat back. It had thrown off his form for a split second, and he redoubled his effort to make up for the slip.

In the middle of his fifth run through, the female approached and leapt down from the cliff to land some thirty yards away. He did not allow her to distract him, though his youki flared and radiated from him with new intensity. He had yet to achieve his aim and his body hummed like a taut bowstring. He was completely aware of her when she sat in the grass, though he did not shift from his perfect form, and she remained silent and watchful as his brought the kata to its conclusion after nearly twenty minutes. He turned to her and glared, but, as usual, she did not flinch. She sat with her legs folded and her hands in her lap, looking greatly entertained. Inside, he growled and felt sorely tested by his struggling beast. His continuing inability to decipher what she wanted only added to his anger.

"You move like a war song, Lord Sesshomaru." She said, smiling at him. "It's alarming!"

He stared, considering her words for a few moments before disregarding them. "Why are you here?"

She stood. He watched with interest as she unlimbered her weapon, but she casually dropped it to the ground. "Let's spar, okay?" His eyes widened slightly as she removed her obi and then her kimono, revealing a plain cloth kosode that showed slightly more of her thighs. "No weapons, no claws." She tossed her clothes over her weapon and turned to him with fists raised in an odd stance. "No armor." She boxed the air a few dozen times in a second, taunting him with that impressive speed. Her smile was cocky. "Ready?"

It was an absurd proposal. He had never sparred with a female in his life, and though he had battled and even killed enough of them, it had never crossed his mind to _train_ with them. Perhaps this was another ploy to gain the status of alpha female. From the battles of his youth, he could guess what might arise from any contact of the non-lethal verity with an unmated female demon, and he guessed that she might try to initiate more intimate acts. He should tell her to put her clothes back on, but he would not give her the satisfaction of knowing the sight affected him. He's reaction meant nothing except that he enjoyed sex with females, and he was not a slave to his instincts. He should ignore her and continue with his kata, or simply leave. The bitch was goading him as she did with Jaken. Doing this would be extremely ill advised. Even as all this occurred to him, he removed his armor and outer kimono, laying them on the ground. He oriented on her, forcing his raging beast into the back of his mind. How foolish of her to offer her enemy an excuse to attack. Ready? He had never been more so.

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**Next time! **

**Chapter VI: Odd Thoughts**


	6. Odd Thoughts

**Oh, you're still here? T-T**

**Sorry, sorry! I'm an idiot, I know. I'm so lazy and slow to update. I will try harder! I will be more regular! But, please, read on.**

**Also, I don't own Inuyasha. You knew that.**

Miko- priestess. Hanyou- half-demon. Inu- dog. Ookami- wolf. Neko- cat. Ryu- dragon. Kitsune- fox. Youkai- demon. Youki- demon aura/energy. Daiyoukai- great demon. Mokomoko- Sesshomaru's fluffy fluffy tail. Kappa- toad. Dokkaso- Sesshomaru's poison. Hime- princess. Kami- gods. Hebi- snake. Oni- those troll/ogre type demons? You know. The ugly ones with horns.

* * *

**Chapter VI: Odd Thoughts**

The two danced across the dew strewn meadow, forcing the morning fog to swirl and eddy in ever-growing patterns around their feet. They were a vibrant pair. Their youki flowed around them in crashing waves, complementary to the fog and contrary to each other, and while their clashing auras did not quite break into the visible spectrum, evidence of the intensity could be tasted. The crisp salt scents of their sweat perfumed and enhanced the latent ionized tang in the air. They moved so quickly that they appeared blurred to the simple eye, their shadows flitting over dirt and grass with a phantasmal quality. But, really, there was no mistaking them for the disembodied.

And then with a discordant thud and a sudden flash of violet light, Fuko was driven back from the melee, breaking the rhythm of their exchange. The female inu youkai clenched her right fist and gave the arm a vigorous shake, dispelling the pervasive numbness that came from taking the direct force of Sesshomaru's blow. Her grin was a little too wide as she flicked damp locks of hair away from her face and regarded him. He realized, of course, that the last blow had a bit too much youki behind it, but it was only to be expected. The energy build-up in this clearing was making the fur on his mokomoko stand on end. Still, it was vexing have been the one to lose control, and he acknowledged this miscalculation with a slight and grudging nod.

"Hold." She called, and then dropped her defenses to stand casually.

He chose not to follow suit, and instead watched as she turned away from him and tilted her head slightly, ears flicking as she appeared to listen. The female raised her hands and flexed the fingers slowly. When blue light began shimmering over her knuckles, she clapped her palms together and tiny nothing bolts of blue youki sizzled and popped through the air in response, spending the charge there with nothing more destructive or lasting than a light show. Sesshomaru's skin still prickled apprehensively when the crackling wave washed over him. He would not forget that she was a spell-caster any time soon.

When the lights faded, she assumed yet another fighting stance. Her leading foot swept across the grass as she fell into her crouch, and her center of gravity lowered considerably, but final result was a perfect pose from which to leap. This one was as unfamiliar as the others had been, but he speculated that her next series of attacks would center on either low-kicks or aerial strikes. She growled throatily, the sound like a rumble of thunder coming after that blue lightening. He responded to her wordless question with little more than a narrowing of his eyelids, but this was enough. She emitted a soft chuffing sound before launching forward.

Again, the two clashed, with swirling fog, reverberant power, percussive thuds, and ozone scent building. Sesshomaru struck high and fast to test the defenses of this new stance, choosing to come at her from above. She blocked, but the last strike in the chain broke through her defenses and grazed her right side, surely leaving a bruise. She caught his overextended arm and used his momentum to switch their positions, flipping herself into the air and forcing him to the ground and wrenching his arm in the process. He tucked into an evasive roll just as she drove a knee into his back, which lessened the force and broke her grip on his arm. She swept his feet out from under him just as he regained them, but he caught himself with a one-armed handstand, leaving him in a position to strike at her head. He cuffed her ear, a move which had the added benefit of disorientation and aided him greatly when her sweeping kick took his arm out from under him. He stumbled slightly on his recovery, but she spent that lost instant in retreat, shaking her head in an effort to stop the ringing. By the time he found his balance, she was prepared to show him the offensive capabilities of this new form.

He had learned that the general advantages she wielded against him as a fighter were variance style and speed. Her technique, while at first seeming a completely arbitrary mix of unfamiliar or half-formed styles proved far too formidable to be amateur or unrefined. Despite all his expectations, which he had already started to discount out of hand, she had trained under some master to learn to the martial arts. The speed, while impressive in her hands, was unmatchable in her feet, and her counter strikes, when in the form of kicks, were particularly punishing. It was annoying to realize he would have bruises from this little singularity of a sparring match and it was doubly annoying to realize that she was holding back in that regard, purposefully punching when she could kick.

It was definitely her speed frustrating him now. She leapt up and attacked from above, proving his theory on the style she had chosen, and an added boost of speed midair drove her at him with untraceable speed. After suffering a barrage of punches for which he could find no rhythm to counter-act, she repelled his counter strike by sweeping it to the side and struck ruthlessly at his lower left side. He leapt backward, not quite ready for another close-quarters bout, but she pounced again with that relentless series of rapid punches and he was forced to engage. He took another barrage of hits to his left side when he attempted to block each punch, and then fell into a defense position with his arms blocking his vital points, meaning his forearms were again pelted. However, in her eagerness, he was able to draw her forward into a position where her belly was partially exposed from beneath. The angle was awkward, but the force of his knee driven home set her aback, and his following kick sent her further still. She maintained her footing, but his blows were enough of a deterrent to keep her from rushing in again. He began sidestepping warily, circling and analyzing her, trying to predict her next movements. As he flexed the muscles in his arms to dispel the ache, he noted the enveloping heat that suffused his body and the wisps of fine white hair that clung to his brow. His breath, deep and even, came just short of a pant. It soothed his pride to note she was in much the same condition, sweating, panting. She circled slowly opposite, sidestepping in perfect tandem with him.

Sesshomaru knew the dangers of irrelevant contemplation in the middle of a match, but he wondered at his situation for a brief moment while they stalked each other, both unable to gain ground and unwilling to concede it. He had wanted a true blood-letting, bone-snapping battle, like the challenge. He had wanted to beat her down, whip her so soundly that she would never again be able to look upon him without cringing. He had wanted her to finally see what was so obvious to him, that she was utterly outmatched. He had not assumed this would be easy, but he had certainly thought that it would be simple. Had it been a matter of engaging her seriously without giving her the edge of underestimation, she would be that whimpering, submissive wreck he had envisioned at the start by now, but she possessed an untold wealth of tactical knowledge and expressed it bodily with unbelievable skill. The instant the match begun, he had no recourse but to focus on the present and little else, with no room to taunt or manipulate her into raising the stakes of the fight. It was galling to realize now that he had underestimated her _again_.

In one instant she was side-stepping, in the next she had lunged at him. Nearly taken by surprise, he pivoted just in time and moved to strike at her back, only to have his fist meet the flat of her palm as she redirected and jabbed at his left side. Pain flared, and he countered on the recoil, snapping the back of his fist across her jaw. She went with the blow, stepping to the side, and then stepping back to lessen the force behind his following punch to the gut. This began a backward march, as Fuko kept ahead of him by bobbing and weaving to avoiding his fists. He drove her all the way back to the pool at the base of the waterfall. Two more quick steps had her in water up to her shins, and she glanced down quickly in telling surprise. He pressed the attack with a predator's anticipation, stepping onto the surface of the water, using momentum and youki to keep from sinking. She finally floundered with water up to her waist and a swift kick set her back and off her feet, submerging her. Sesshomaru leapt backward, landed on the shore, and then stood panting and pleased, waiting for her to charge out of the depths.

Just as the surface of the pool was calming, a jet of water erupted toward him. He dodged right, which only set him in the path of the torrent that followed after. Undercover of the deluge, she darted forward and drove an elbow into his chest. When she followed that up by hooking a leg around the back of his knee, he instantly knew she was unbalancing him for a throw—and still could do nothing to stop it. Even as he was plunged into frigid water with an explosion of froth and bubbles, he focused his youki in the white-silver fur that trailed behind him. The mokomoko struck out and coiled like a python around her head as if it had eyes of its own, and then lifted her, flinging her over him and deeper into the heart of the pool. The insult of being drenched and then tossed so summarily pushed him to actions that were, upon immediate reflection, petty and unworthy of someone of his station. It took a second for Sesshomaru to right himself in the broiling water and he stood to find that the churned pool that was once so clear only came to mid chest. His ears were flooded, his nose not much better, and both their auras so clouded the air that he could only guess at her position. He marked the still rippling water where she had gone in and scanned the surface for a sign of movement.

Fuko exploded upward from behind him just as he was turning with a sense that an attack was imminent, but instead of lashing out, she flopped belly first over his face, tackling him into the depths of the pool. Sesshomaru turned quickly to keep water from pouring in to his nasal cavities, twisting away from her in the process. His next sensation was one he had never experienced before, and had never planned to experience in his life, but he recognized it instantly. The sensation was that of a boot on the back of his head, pushing him face first down toward the muck. He had the presence of mind to hold his arms ridge in front of him and grimaced in disgust as they sank into the gritty sediment up to his forearms. He yanked his arms out, only to then be face with a thick cloud of disturbed silt. His nose wrinkled, though he could not smell it, he could taste the collective filth of years washed down stream.

He hadn't the wherewithal to school his expression or quell his emotions. He was still living in that previous moment, that preposterous sensation. She had stepped on his head.

_How dare she? _

When he broke the surface seconds later, he found her floundering out of the water with thick reddish clay caked over the back of her kosode. A burst of anger fueled youki propelled him out of the pool and onto the land ahead of her, and the second he alighted, he turned to unleash his ire. But the words never formed on his tongue, and his hands froze at his sides before he could ever reach for her throat. While her clothing had been plastered with clay on the back, the front was unmarred, pristine even, and now all but transparent. For the first time in a long time, possibly since his birth, Sesshomaru was at a loss as to what to do next, or even what to think or how to react.

He was not an idiot. He could see and scent as plain as day that this Fuko of the North was a female. An attractive female. He had taken note of her attributes and his own response to them. Negligible, manageable. And yet, one look at her nearly naked body stayed his hand, and made him completely forget what had made him so furious.

She took the last few steps out of the pool and stood in front of him, holding her arms slightly out to the sides as if to offer to him her body. "Look at this," she said. "But then, you're not much better."

She turned to the side, presenting the curve of her rear and breasts in profile, and lifted her arm, pulling the fabric taunt over her skin. "I'm covered in mud. Maybe we went too far…. Hey, Sessh- Lord Sesshomaru?"

Sesshomaru stiffened, coming back to himself, and immediately turned away from her. He now faced the waterfall, and he stared at it for a moment before quickly striding toward it. She called after him, but he would not, could not turn. Harsh emotion roiled through him: anger and frustration being the most immediately familiar, confusion a recognizable if rare addition, joined with things he had thought he left behind in adolescence like embarrassment, awkwardness, and a fiery hormonal lust. He felt alien to himself, which only fueled the anger, which then burned over into resentment. He was given over to wondering bitterly what she had done, if it was some sort of trick or spell woven around him that was making him feel and react this way. He stepped into the torrent of cold water and stood unflinching under the onslaught, watching the water blast the dirt from his skin and clothes. Lifting his palms to the downpour, he splayed his fingers back to let the water cleanse the mud from his claws.

She stepped into the fall of water next to him, but he refused to look. Instead, he tilting his face up and let the water wash his hair back. The temperature of the water, while not unbearable, was affecting his body in much needed ways, cooling his blood and clearing his mind. In a few moments, he was again centered, feeling more like himself. He had seen nothing that he had not seen before. She was just another woman, with the same general look of all the rest. And, just this once, this common sight inexplicably transmuted all his offended rage into arousal.

He stepped out of the waterfall, and raked his claws through his hair in one smooth stoke as he moved toward the rest of his clothing, which had been left on the other edge of the clearing. Again, she sidled up behind him, be he kept his eyes forward. The sun was above the horizon, he saw, and though the lingering reds of sunrise hinted that it had not been long since its ascent, Sesshomaru cursed himself for not keeping track of the time. The others were probably awake. They had most likely taken note of his absence, and hers. Jaken would lose his tiny little mind when they returned together. Sesshomaru answered to no one, but even the thought of hearing his squawking, nasal voice raised to a volume higher than necessary in any situation, which it always was, set his teeth on edge.

The female suddenly darted forward, almost touching him. "Hey, what's wrong?"

He spun and regarded her with an icy glare, reminded of all the reasons why he had wanted to dig his claws into her stomach.

She stopped immediately and her ears fell back as if he had shouted, but she hadn't the sense to step back. "Oh. You're still mad."

His response was to press his youki outward from his skin in a concentrated burst, flinging water from his person, leaving him dry and everything around him wet, or wetter. It was petty, but he enjoyed watching her flinch back and her eyes widen in shock. But then she laughed, proving not at all offended by his jibe.

Annoyed, Sesshomaru turned to continue on and retrieve his clothing and armaments, but then a spray of cold water hit his back.

Incredulous, he stopped and slowly looked over his shoulder, half expecting to see her running away, but of course, she had no sense. She smiled at him casually as she stood in her now semi-dry, appropriately opaque clothes, combing her claws through wild, damp hair. "You started it."

He stared for a moment longer, torn. He should want to gut her now. But he did not.

Sesshomaru faced forward, determining not to look at her again. The most he could summon at this moment was annoyance and a vague sense of vengefulness. At some point, she would pay for her offenses, but not this moment, for he was strangely empty of the raucous energies that had pledged him all night. His every limb was suffused with a kinetic heat that was both soothing and invigorating. It also seemed that his beast had quieted, and the ominous pacing inside him had subsided into a peculiar attentiveness. Annoyingly, it was focused on her. Even as he donned his clothes, armor, and weapons, he found that while it was easy to avoid the sight of her, he could not ignore her. He remained aware of her body position and sensed her shake off the remaining water like a common animal, felt her gaze on his back, and heard the easing of her breath. He could sense her amusement when he quickly combed his own claws through his hair to straighten it, and was further annoyed and annoyed again that he noticed enough to be bothered. She was beneath him.

_She is beneath me._ He said to himself, but his attention swayed to the slight sounds of her approach, marking her conversational tone as she took up her own discarded outer layers.

"We should head back, huh?"

He did not outwardly acknowledge her question, but was reminded again of the time. She had distracted him for hours longer than he had planned. Exasperated, he quickly secured the last of his armor and took up his sword belt, fastening it as he walked to the cliff face. When he passed her, he kept his eyes focused on his destination, but he still managed to see her pulling taunt the final fold of the obi's bow behind her back. She limbered her spear just as he leapt into the air, clearing the lip of the cliff with precisely enough room to step forward and continue walking toward the campsite.

She leapt up after him, over shooting the lip by several feet, and fell into step at his side. "That was fun." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her ears bob. "It was a pleasure to spar with you."

Sesshomaru unwillingly absorbed the comment, internalizing it. She had enjoyed herself. He had as well. Why?

Since the emergence of Bakusagia, the sword forged from his own power, what challenge had he faced that was not tiresome in one way or another? He thought back to no avail. Naraku, the half-demon abomination, had underhanded tricks to turn a battle in his favor, but never truly had the power he died trying obtain. Sesshomaru knew he could never lose to such a creature. No one truly notable had risen to challenge him in the time since the hanyou's destruction, though Sesshomaru had scoured the land searching for an assessment of his newly earned strength. Short of waging war with the kami, he had begun to think there was no one left to test himself against. But now, he found that he could honestly echo her sentiment. Sparring with her had been, among many other things… fun.

Disturbed, he turned his attention toward the management of his followers. Rin was awake, and as he entered her line of sight, she leapt up from the ground, calling his name happily in her high pitched voice. She looked to be in fine health, and she ran to him with the usual energy. As if in competition, Jaken ran toward him and then fell at his feet, all the while wailing praise in near incoherence. His manner did not raise any alarms, and it was always easy to tell if Jaken was unduly anxious. He was stepped on as a result of lying in Sesshomaru's path of course. At least the toad was being somewhat less irritating than he had imagined.

Fuko stopped and picked Jaken up, which started the imp to wailing again. "Unhand me! Unhand me! Foul wench! What were you doing to Lord Sesshomaru? How dare you waste milord's time with your—"

The rest of his accusation was distorted by being flattened to the ground when she dropped him and then stepped on his back on her way into camp. "Good morning, Jaken." She said.

"Fuko-san, Fuko-san!" Rin stopped skipping at his heels and turned toward the female. "Good morning."

"Good morning, Rin-chan. Did you eat yet?"

"Mm-hmm!"

Their continued exchange rang in his ears, ruthlessly pricking his attention until he stopped and looked back. Jaken stood off to the side, shouting curses at them while Rin and the female stood, swinging linked hands and chattering at each other like two song birds. Or perhaps more like two little girls. While behavior was not unusual, and on the contrary was exactly how they had behaved toward each other since their meeting, the whole scene now had a surreal quality that set his nerves on edge.

"Jaken."

The imp froze for an instant as his name was snapped out in a manner he knew presaged pain. "Y-yes, milord?"

"Decamp. Now."

"Y-yes, milord!" The order, though directed at Jaken, set the rest to work as well.

Sesshomaru moved toward the western edge of the clearing, keeping his eyes on the scene, only stopping when he would have disappeared into the trees. He stared hard at the female as she flitted about the camp, alternating between helping the others and completing small tasks of her own, all the while conversing with Rin. A warrior, a woman, and now a child, she bounced between activities with a high energy that seemed wasteful. In just moments, the area was cleared. Jaken announce that they were ready.

They set out with Sesshomaru listening ahead for obstacles to his party, youkai or otherwise, and listening behind to the female's movements for reasons that were too numerous and tangled to be neatly addressed.

His quietly, foolishly mounting beliefs about the true circumstances of his defeat at her hands were shattered before they even fully formed. The demon lord could not tell himself it had been a fluke that kept them physically matched all of that evening into the light of dawn. He did not want to. He was interested now. She had his attention. But even this small development was tinged with a sense of incredulousness.

Truly, she had just seemed so… _childish_ over the past days of travel, with her constant play and chatter with Rin, her teasing and taunting Jaken, and her coddling of Ah-Un. But her training was far more extensive than her attitude suggested, or than he thought was even possible. This ridiculous little figure with her gaudily-dyed clothes and her hanyou-esque ears was, if not his equal, then at the very least in a league he had thought only inhabited by himself.

Sesshomaru questioned how he had misjudged her so thoroughly. He methodically went back to the first moment he laid eyes on her. In that flowered clearing, they had clashed for only a few moments, but she had kept up with him very well. At the time, he had not seen any significance in it. He had already decided she was too weak to be a threat to him. Before that, then. He had sensed her approach. He had been foraging for Rin, and he felt her aura in the distance. It had been big and moving quickly toward those he had responsibility for, but not spectacular in any other way. It had been large, but shallow in a way that seemed overtaxed, like a lesser demon trying to seem more powerful. Surprised, Sesshomaru considered her now, subtly running his youki over hers and testing the boundaries. He sensed it, large, but shallow, or seemingly shallow. It was untrue, he knew. Her aura could rise up to meet his with no great effort on her part. He began picking at the edges, sacrificing subtly for the sake of expediency. She seemed to pull into herself slightly, but her aura showed no sign of deepening. Ruthlessly, he delved, uncaring for her startled negative reaction. Her aura pulsed warningly, and he heard a slight faltering in her exchange with Rin. What he was doing was worse than rude, but he foraged on, needling into her aura until she broke off speaking entirely and he felt her eyes bore into his back.

"Fuko-san?"

"Hmm?"

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know, Rin-chan," she said, and then called out. "Lord Sesshomaru, did you want something?" With this polite inquiry, she began probing sharply into his own youki.

He stopped, turning slightly, not to look at her, but to acknowledge her words. She was giving him what he wanted, though it was more than a bit… uncomfortable. Examining her while she examined him, with their youki side-by-side doing similar things, made it easier to see the subtle dissimilarity, and he did not know what to make of it.

If auras were bodies of water that could be measured in span, depth and clarity, a very minor demon might be a puddle, muddy or otherwise, of little consequence and only threatening in certain situations. An imp of Jaken's caliber would be a small stagnate pond, not deep enough to down a pig. Others might be streams, swamps, rivers, lakes, seas, and, of course Sesshomaru had the aura of an ocean— or a glacier, depending on his mood. When thought of in this way, Fuko's aura would not be a liquid, but a gas. To Sesshomaru's vast ocean of power, Fuko would be the equivalent in mass, an atmosphere.

While Sesshomaru did not think of it in quite that way, he understood the essential difference, and recognized it as completely bizarre. He slowly pulled back from their quick invisible duel. "Hn."

She retreated as well. "You could have asked."

He resisted the urge to snort as he started the procession again, ignoring Jaken as he began berating the female for daring to flare her youki at his lord. Indeed, he could have asked. But it would have revealed his interest, and worse, his ignorance. Now that he could feel it, it was so obvious that he could not un-feel it, as if he had been confounded by writing on a scroll, only to realize the kana was upside down.

Why was her aura as it was, and how did it become that way? Was she doing it purposefully, and if so, for what reason? Sesshomaru spent some time meandering through thoughts such as these, even briefly trying to mimic the odd composition by expanding his aura while still holding it at the same size. He could not and found the exercise to be self-defeating. While he was considering the possibility that she was carrying some enchanted something that disguised her power, Rin's voice pierced his concentration.

"Where did you and Lord Sesshomaru go this morning, Fuko-san? I wanted to wait and have breakfast with you, but Master Jaken wouldn't let me."

"Oh, we were down by the waterfall. We sparred."

Jaken interrupted, "Why would Lord Sesshomaru waste his time sparring with such a weak demoness?"

They ignored him, talking around him as they had been all morning. "You fought?" Rin's voice was edged with anxiety.

"No, no, Rin-chan. It wasn't serious. Sparring is like practice fighting."

"But, Lord Sesshomaru already knows how to fight."

"It's always good to practice. That's how you get better."

"Lord Sesshomaru is the best!" Her voice now held a note of flourish, and he was not surprised when she lapsed into song. As with all her original work, the tune was simple and repetitive, and there was no subtly in the lyrics. "Lord Ses-sho-ma-ru! Big-gest! Strong-gest! With Baku-saiga, he can de-feat all the rest! Master Ja-ken! His Staff of Two-o Heads makes fi-ire! He tries very hard, but he gets ti-ired!" Over Jaken's loud protests, she continued. "Fu-uko-san, Fu-uko-san! Her spear…" She interrupted herself. "Fuko-san, what's your spear's name? Does it have a name?"

"Yes. I call it Chikyukiba."

"Why?"

"Oh… I think my father called it something like that. Fangs of stone, mountain fangs, piercing earth. I settled on Chikyukiba."

Again, Rin sang, but Sesshomaru honed in on that smallest bit of information. The weapon came from her father and she did not know its true name. The spear was not a great well of power like Bakusaiga or Tenseiga, which both radiated youki, but he knew it had some special qualities. It was unusual that an inu youkai male would leave a weapon to his female offspring at all, such things were left to the dam.

For the first time, Sesshomaru wondered what clan the female came from. What affiliations must she have? She could not truly be what she claimed, he had realized this shortly after she gave her title. The north hosted no particular dog clans, and those that scratched out a living on the northern tip of the main island were small, mindless, and weak, having almost no relation with the daiyoukai of the race, which ranged to the south. The Northern most clan of any consequence was south of the Oga peninsula, but they were black inu and the strongest among them was hardly able to hold a humanoid shape. Some southern and eastern clans boasted daiyoukai, and a few within that group had brown or mixed-color fur, but only two were known to have demon marks of their own houses. He envisioned the odd mark she had shown him on their first meeting. Since that time, it had been obscured by her hair, which fell nearly into her eyes, but he knew he would have immediately recognized the mark of the House of the Mountain, or the House of the Sea. He considered that she may be from the mainland, but her Japanese was perfect and he had spent years on that continent, more than enough time to be able to recognize a denizen.

Sesshomaru eyes narrowed slightly. It seemed a bit to fantastic to believe, and a bit too convenient. A daiyoukai who did not know the house their demon mark signified could believably claim anywhere or anything, even go so far as to establish their own house. And yet, she had claimed nebulous and unverifiable origins. The strangeness of her power, her aura, her appearance, and her mannerisms had distracted him from what should have been his main concern. Her motives were still suspect.

Behind him, the distinctive pattering of Rin's feet stopped, and he surmised that she had been lifted off the ground. The female said, "Here, Rin-chan, ride Ah-Un for a minute."

"That's okay, Fuko-san. I'm not tired." Ah-Un's saddle creaked as the girl shifted to get down.

"Just for a moment, please?"

Rin sounded reluctant. "Okay."

The demoness began to approach, and he anticipated fielding some request having to do with Rin, but it became clear what she really intended to say before she reached him.

Far beyond and behind them, several demon auras were conjugating. Some were ranging to the far sides to flank them, and while he smelled nothing but the forest around them, and heard nothing but the chirping of birds and the scuttling of rodents, he could sense they were being watched from nearby. These other auras were also attempting to conceal themselves, but they were failing badly.

He lifted a hand to silence her just as she came within arm's length of him. "Jaken, take Rin and Ah-Un. Go now."

"Y-yes, milord!"

Sesshomaru turned to see Jaken scramble up the dragon beast's foreleg. Already aboard, Rin moved to make room and Sesshomaru noted the familiar look on her face. This child knew danger, but she did not cringe from it. She sat tight-lipped with a look of determination of her small face. Once Jaken was perched on his back, Ah-Un roared and charged into the sky, circling once before lifting higher and bearing his cargo off over the tree line. Just before Rin left his sight, he saw her face suddenly shift. Her eyes widened, her mouth fell open. Her voice was carried back to him thinly. "We left Fuko-san!"

Next to him, she shouted back. "I'll be alright, don't worry!"

Sesshomaru placed a hand over the fur at his shoulder and raked his fingers over the plush softness, purely for the pleasure of sinking his claws into something. Of course, in Rin's eyes, this female was a playmate, but could she have so quickly forgotten that she was a demon and a warrior? Only moments before, they had discussed her spear.

The female interrupted his thoughts. "Sounds like snakes. They're rushing in now."

He could hear for himself the quiet roar of a multitude of scaled bodies passing through the undergrowth, and he could guess what this farce of an ambush was about. As he began to walk forward along the trail, he spoke. "I will face them alone."

She tagged along behind him at a sedate pace and said pleasantly. "No need. I'll help."

His youki flared slightly and his voice took on a hard, imperious edge. "I did not ask for your aid."

"Don't mention it."

He pivoted to face her and glared. Again, her ears flattened as if he shouted, but she didn't back down. "I will not repeat myself." he said.

In that same pleasant tone, she replied. "They will attack me, regardless of how you want this battle to go." She started walking again, passing him. "I won't sit on my hands and be slaughtered." She glanced back. "You should resign yourself to the idea."

His aura pulsed so fiercely that she jerked to a stop and faced him again with her hand half reached backward for her spear. His spoke around a low growl. "Do not presume to tell me what I should do."

Her ears flicked forward, and then bobbed as her hand fell away from her spear. "I didn't mean anything by it. Do whatever you want."

"So good to have your permission." he snapped.

"You're deliberately misunderstanding everything I say." Her youki sparked. For the first time, he saw annoyance steal in her eyes, and it fired him.

He stepped toward her aggressively. "Perhaps you do not speak with enough clarity or purpose."

She made fists at her sides. She seemed to puff up, leaning forward toward him as she demanded. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Do not play at stupidity. Though you do it well, I tire of the act."

She took a half step forward. "I liked you better when you didn't talk!"

"Then I will be sure to speak more frequently in the future!"

"You-!"

A voice like grit and sand rang out, cutting her off. "Oh, don't let us interrupt you!"

Sesshomaru drew back sharply and in an instant they stood back-to-back, weapons at the ready. They were surrounded by hundreds upon thousands of snakes of all lengths and thicknesses, slithering slow circles around their position. Even as he was assessing his enemy, the one who had spoken, which was a stoat green-skinned oni standing on the head of a massive black demon asp, he was still in the moment before, squaring off against a much more worthy opponent. The scent of her irritation still filled his nose, and the edges of his aura still tingled from rough contact with hers. He chose not to dwell on the intimate proximity of their faces just before the intrusion.

The oni laughed. "That's better! I want you to see your ends coming, you sniveling dogs! I am Kuro, the snake-herder!"

The female called out. "What's this about? We have no quarrel with you."

"No quarrel?! You murdered my pet, Kodayama! In payment, I will take your lives and the lives of the weaklings you sent away!"

The great black asp reared back and hissed, which was echoed in chorus, and the snakes around them began to broil like a violent sea of scales, heralding a mass assault. Sesshomaru's youki swelled malevolently, and flared higher still when he sensed hers flaring to match him. "Do not interfere."

Her voice deepened in a vague imitation of his own. "Do not presume to tell me what I should do."

He glanced at her sharply, nearly snarling. "Insolent whelp."

"And you're a bully!"

The oni roared. "You dare ignore me!"

Fuko whirled, leveling her spear at him. "Go kick rocks!"

This time it was a wordless roar and the hebi youkai surged forth together. Sesshomaru purposefully shoved passed her as he leapt toward the leader.

Even over the hisses and squeals of dying snakes and the thud of flesh hitting the ground, he heard her mutter. "Jerk."

A second later the demon lord was bringing his sword down on the oni, who was very surprised to find himself being so quickly faced with his victim. The single blow split him in half completely, as well as the asp he sat upon. Kuro the snake-herder's final words were. "How did-"

Sesshomaru loosed his whip next, making swift work of those snakes that rushed at him as he fell, and once he reached the ground, several that were trying to flee, destroying two-hundred or so in moments. When he turned to finish the rest, he found the female cutting down the last of those that stayed to fight after the quick death of their leader. Around her, there lay maybe three tons of demon snake flesh.

Quickly his mind jumped to calculations, and he glanced back at the black asp that now lay in two parts, filleted and steaming. It had been by far the largest in attendance. Including the two hundred he'd killed afterward, his work amounted to at least a three thousand pounds more flesh than hers. This pleased him.

Sesshomaru flicked the blood from Bakusaiga and sheathed it.

She twirled the spear once, flinging blood off in an ach, before she plunged one blade into the ground. Red light swelled up and the blood muddied ground began to churn. He watched silently as within moments tons of carcasses were swallowed by the earth, leaving only slight mounds and the scent of meat and soil.

Afterward, she limbered her weapon and turned to him. They regarded each other for a few moments.

Her ears bobbed. "Okay then?"

"Hn."

Sesshomaru turned and began tracking Ah-Un through the forest, aware of the female following close behind. He sighed subtly, trying to ease some of the tension of the encounter. Pleasure at pitting himself against her and frustration at his seeming inability to bend her to his will warred within him.

He did not glance back, but he could picture her very clearly walking along, legs moving in tandem with her near silent foot falls, eyes focused on his back. Was it the calm watchful gaze that she usually faced him with, or was she taking the opportunity to glare at him? Strangely, he preferred to picture her glaring. He imagined her doing something childish, like sticking her tongue out at him. He had to resist the urge to look back and check that this was not the case.

Putting such useless speculating away, he considered again her motives and her loyalties, and then considered what it might take to sway these things toward his own benefit. It was true that her nebulous connections left her free to claim, but they also left her free to be claimed. Though she would not follow his direction with nearly the about of faithfulness and loyalty he had come to expect, this could be taught or conditioned. What interested him now was her potential as an asset for him, and by extension the Western Lands and the House of the Moon. Sesshomaru's mind turned to conquest, and a small, nearly imperceptible smile slipped over his face. The process of circumventing her plans and supplanting his own, while possibly arduous and perhaps grueling, would be well worth one day seeing her kneel at his feet, taking orders she would hold as the law. His beast stirred at the mental picture.

For whatever reason, she needed to get to the Western lands to further her plans and had no means to get there on her own. Again, an unwholesome smile touched his lips. It would be simple enough to delay their arrival.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Rin woke in the middle of the night, but only opened her eyes briefly before closing them again. She tried very hard to keep her breathing the same. If she was really limp and relaxed, and didn't think about anything too hard, Master Jaken wouldn't come over and tell her to go back to sleep. He was really good at telling whether she was sleeping or not, but she had learned how to fool him. She couldn't fool Lord Sesshomaru, but he wasn't here.

She guessed that she would not be able to fool Fuko-san, but she wasn't here either.

Rin wondered to herself why her lord and Fuko-san liked sparring so much. They had done it every night since the time they stopped at the place with all the pretty streams. Was it fun? Fuko-san made it sound almost like playing, but Lord Sesshomaru did not play. Rin squirmed a little under her furs, and then relaxed. Did they like each other? Did they dislike each other? She couldn't tell. Sometimes Lord Sesshomaru glared, but other times he just watched. He didn't ignore Fuko-san like he used to anymore. Fuko-san didn't watch Lord Sesshomaru, but when Rin asked to hear about their sparring, she smiled like she liked remembering. Sometimes they would say something to each other, like Fuko-san would ask if they would have a bath today, and Sesshomaru would ask if it was necessary. They didn't really talk about anything really, like she and Fuko-san did about people and places and ideas and dreams they'd had. They didn't even talk like Master Jaken and Fuko-san did, which Rin thought was a good thing, since Master Jaken was really rude to Fuko-san. Fuko-san wasn't rude to Master Jaken though, or made be only a little. And she didn't think Fuko-san really disliked Master Jaken, even though she picked on him sometimes.

But did they want to talk to each other? Once, it seemed to Rin like they wanted to talk about more than what Fuko-san and Rin would do next. She remembered two or three days ago they had been talking about one of the places Fuko had gotten lost in, a place with lots of lots of humans and big, big buildings like palaces everywhere for miles. Lord Sesshomaru suddenly asked if Fuko-san really believed such a place existed. Fuko-san said she didn't need to believe it because she had been there. Lord Sesshomaru didn't say anything else and Fuko-san didn't say anything else until Rin felt like she would explode and _she_ had to say something else so Fuko-san would talk again. Just remembering it made her feel that way now, but Rin imagined different kinds of flowers and their names until the feeling went away.

She had thought then that they really didn't like each other, but later, when she and Fuko-san were alone and gathering food, Rin had asked if she was mad at him for not thinking the palace place was real. Fuko-san had said, "No, that's silly. I wouldn't get upset over that. He has no reason to think a place like that is real." And then she had smiled at Rin and asked, "You don't want me to be mad at your lord, do you?" Rin really didn't, and she told her so. Rin squirmed again, shifting the furs. If Fuko-san liked Lord Sesshomaru, maybe he would start to like her more, and then—

"Rin? You're awake! Go to sleep, you silly girl!" Master Jaken came to sit next to her, muttering quietly about how children don't sleep properly.

"Okay, Master Jaken." Rin rolled over and curled up on her side. She wanted to think some more, but after a few moments of relaxing, she accidently fell back asleep.

When she woke next, the sky was a soft blue, signaling that the sun was about to come up. She sat up, letting the furs fall off her shoulders. She shivered slightly and pulled them back up before looking around. Lord Sesshomaru was gone. Ah-Un was awake and standing off to the side, nibbling grass. Master Jaken was asleep, hunched over near the embers of the fire. And then she spied Fuko-san sitting cross-legged near a rock, turning something over and over in her hands.

Rin bounded over, running right out of her covers. She glanced over at Master Jaken before whispering excitedly, "Fuko-san! Good morning, Fuko-san."

The inu youkai glanced up with a warm smile that made Rin feel nice inside. "Good morning, Rin-chan. Are you hungry?"

"Not yet," she answered. "What's that? Where's Lord Sesshomaru?"

"I don't know where he went, but I think he left to scout. This!" Fuko held up the greenish rock in her hands, grinning in a way that excited Rin. "-is jadeite! Do you want to hold it?"

Rin nearly made herself dizzy with her frantic nodding. The stone was passed to her and it filled her cupped hands. It was a good size and weight, feeling substantial. It was kind of the size of her foot, and shaped a little like that. "It's heavy, but look!" Rin raised the rock over her head to show that she could, and Fuko clapped.

Rin grinned and passed it back. "What are you going to do with it?"

Again, Fuko-san grinned. "I'm going to make you a present."

The girl's mouth fell open. "What?"

Fuko nodded once. "A present."

Without thinking, Rin lurched forward and threw herself into Fuko's arms, wrapping her arms tight around her neck. She couldn't even speak to say thank you! or really? or anything. She was happy when Fuko-san hugged her back, but began to worry after a little while. Fuko-san was a demon like Lord Sesshomaru, and he didn't like hugging. He only ever held her when she was hurt or sick, or if he needed to carry her. Rin pulled away with pink cheeks and looked at her feet, which were smudged with dirt. "S-sorry, Fuko-san! It's just, only Lord Sesshomaru has ever given me a present, and I got excited, and-"

Fuko-san frowned, confused. Her ears bobbed. "What are you sorry for, Rin-chan?"

Rin looked up, saw the frown and looked away. "I hugged you without permission, sorry."

"Aw, Rin-chan, you don't need permission to hug me. We're friends, right?"

The girl glanced up sharply. "Huh?"

Fuko gave a soft smile. "We're friends."

Rin's cheeks reddened a little more, and she looked down at her fidgeting hands before asking, "Really?"

"Yeah." For a second, they were both quiet, then Fuko held out her arms. Rin fell into them and was squeezed gently. "You know, you can call me Fuko. Or, Fuko-chan, if you prefer. Maybe even Fu-chan."

Rin looked up, amazed.

Fuko wrinkled her nose playfully. "Someone called me Fufu-chan, but I don't like it."

Rin giggled. "Fufu-chan sounds pretty."

"It sounds like a cat's name." They both laughed.

The sound woke Jaken, and he jerked to his feet, waving his staff groggily. "What! Who's there!?"

They laughed harder.

"What?" Jaken spun in a complete circle before finding them. "W-what are you two laughing at?!" When they simply kept laughing, he stomped his foot angrily. "Stop it at once!"

This sent them into paroxysms of amusement, and all the laughing and smiles, even when it was so much it hurt, made Rin feel light and float-y, like a leaf in a gentle stream. Eventually, they quieted, lapsing into muffled giggles if only for Jaken's sake, since he hadn't stopped shouting since it started and was beginning to turn bluish-green.

"There!" He breathed. "It's good to see you two haven't completely lost your minds!" He slumped to the ground, as tired as they were, and whined, "If Lord Sesshomaru came back and saw that, he'd blame me for sure."

At length, Rin was poked in her side, which was still tender from laughing. She suppressed a giggle as she asked, "Yes, Fuko-chan?"

"Are you hungry?"

"Mmm-hmm!"

"Okay, let's go see what's for breakfast."

* * *

**Onward!**

**Chapter VII: The Games We Play**


	7. The Games We Play

**Hello! Sorry again for the wait. It's a long chapter, if that helps.**

**Soooooo, reader response: What should Sessh's Mom's name be? What should Sango and Miroku's twin girls' names be? Who will make a cover for this story, since it is coverless? Think about it or volunteer if you're an artist and get back to me in the pms.**

**Also, I don't own Inuyasha. You knew that.**

Miko- priestess. Hanyou- half-demon. Inu- dog. Ookami- wolf. Neko- cat. Ryu- dragon. Kitsune- fox. Youkai- demon. Youki- demon aura/energy. Daiyoukai- great demon. Mokomoko- Sesshomaru's fluffy fluffy tail. Kappa- toad. Dokkaso- Sesshomaru's poison. Hime- princess. Kami- gods. Hebi-snake. Oni- ogre demons

* * *

**Chapter VII: The Games We Play**

"Jaken. Take Rin to forage."

"Yes, milord!" Jaken turned toward the trees. "Come, girl. You're too slow!"

"Okay!" Rin slipped down from Ah-Un's back and ran ahead of the imp, not heeding his call when he shouted that she was going too fast.

Fuko moved to follow, but a splinter of youki suddenly sizzled across her senses, as jarring as the sound of breaking glass. She jerked to a stop and glanced sharply at Sesshomaru.

His face was completely inscrutable, and their eyes held for a long moment before he said flatly. "We stop here for the night. Secure the area."

Fuko's ears flicked in irritation, but then she quelled it. Escalating their silent fight wouldn't help anyone. And getting angry certainly wouldn't progress a friendship between herself and the Western lord. Not that she really thought friendship was possible under these conditions. Nevertheless, if Rin saw them fight, it would upset her, and there was still that looming threat of exhaustion sickness. Thinking of the girl quelled her ire even further, and she tucked her hands into her sleeves as she turned to face him completely. Inside, she found the raw lump of jadeite with her fingertips. Rin _really_ loved her lord, and obviously thought of him as a father. Fuko couldn't bring herself to hate someone that the little girl loved.

But she was still pissed.

He'd spent the day abrading her with the ill winds of his youki. This felt like being smothered by a hot woolen blanket, but so long as she kept her own youki ramped up, it was tolerable. It was her punishment for defying him, though she didn't accept the notion she had done anything worth punishing. Despite her periodic warning flares, Sesshomaru maintained the oppressive cloud, letting up briefly at times only to suddenly amp up the pressure again. She wanted nothing more than to shrug him off, but that was easier said than done, especially with Jaken on alert for her every little offence. He obviously wanted another confrontation, the big bully, but she wouldn't give him one. It would just lead to more stupid grudges.

Shaking those thoughts away, she blew out a breath and replied to him as amicably as possible, "I usually go with Rin to find food."

"I have given my orders."

She felt his youki shift thickly, grating over hers. It was worse than having her fur rubbed the wrong way. "I heard what you ordered. I'm just trying to let you know that Rin will be disappointed."

His chin lifted slightly and his voice gained a new edge of frost. "You can hardly believe you have made yourself so vital that she cannot function in your absence."

The grating had continued vigorously during his retort and Fuko finally gave another warning flare. Their combined power was enough to approach the visible spectrum, and a few sparks sizzled through the air. "What's that supposed to mean?" she asked. "Listen, I don't mind scouting around the camp, but I feel like you're asking just to bother me, and—"

"Fuko-chan!"

The demoness turned and darted into the trees, reaching Rin's side before her call was even complete. Jaken flinched in surprise at her sudden appearance and the little human jumped as well, but then grinned a greeting. Fuko gave her a tense smile. "Rin-chan, we're going to stop here for the night."

"Oh." The girl frowned, eyes going wide. "Why are we stopping? It's only midday."

Again, Fuko's ears flicked. Why _were_ they stopping? "Your Lord Sesshomaru decided to stop. He also said I should go secure the area, so I'm going to go do that. Sorry about lunch."

Her frown deepened. "It's okay. But, what if you get lost?"

Sighing, Fuko tried to let go of some of the tension in her shoulders. "I can find Jaken, remember? I'll come join you when I've finished."

Rin swayed from side to side, her face brightening abruptly. "Oh! Okay. Bye!"

A smile twitched over Fuko's lips and she nodded. "See you soon."

Again, she dashed away, leaving a swirl of wind in her wake. Within two seconds, she was beyond the cloud of Sesshomaru's youki for the first time that day. She slowed, relieved.

Trotting through the old grown forest of cypress and pine, Fuko could feel the small amount of cheer Rin had given her already draining away. She frowned, annoyed with herself. Why was she letting that bull-headed jerk get under her skin? She had to keep the peace, at least until they parted ways. She should just ignore his behavior and placate him, but the very idea of giving him what he wanted now set her teeth on edge.

For a while, the demoness tried working off her anger by picking up speed, bouncing off tree trunks and ricocheting off boulders, with shrapnel from these impacts zinging into the undergrowth, but this only made her more upset. Why was she out here running in circles anyway? Scouting was something he did, wasn't it? Why this sudden delegation of duty? And _why_ were they stopping so early in the day, when all that morning they had been running full tilt, with Ah-Un carrying Rin and Jaken through the air? She had wondered if they were on their final approach to the West, but it appeared they had only gone deeper into the heart of the forest.

Reaching the outer limits of the ten mile radius around the homing beacon on Jaken's staff, Fuko turned sharply and began running along the perimeter. She didn't know how Sesshomaru usually secured an area for the night, but she figured her own methods of area lockdown would be sufficient.

Fuko drew on her power, which reacted gladly with the cathartic release of a coil long left on the verge of springing. It whirled higher and higher around her, intensifying until it tinged the air blue and then painted it with cobalt streaks and violet veins. When the trees around her suddenly began to creak and buckle from the pressure, she sheepishly pulled back, leashing the youki tornado. When more appropriate mild gusts spun the leaves in her wake with only florescent hints of indigo, she began running spokes through the interior of the circular area while purposefully avoiding the hub so as not to encounter any of her group. Her disturbing winds stirred up the small wood-dwelling tree spirits and the buggy beasts that burrowed underground, buffeting them until they moved clear. If she considered it, she would realize that she was doing the same to these demon beasts that Sesshomaru had been doing to her, but Fuko was lost in the process, mind a pleasant blank as she whizzed through the under bush and vaulted over streams. With only a few passes, the lesser demons began clearing out, moving beyond the perimeter.

She continued until the last of them had fled, and then let her aura die down as she moved to the edge of her claimed area to run along it again. She smirked. It wasn't often that she got to be territorial, and her methods had improved vastly since her childhood scent-marking days. She glanced up at the sun and estimated that she had been away for twenty minutes. The Western Lord was gone for hours a night, and she wondered idly if there was more she should be doing.

Then, a flicker of Sesshomaru's power at the center of the camp caught her attention. Immediately, her muscles tensed and her easy loping gait shifted toward a more aggressive pummeling of the earth. Consequently, she picked up speed. Fuko decided she wasn't ready to go back, considering that the mere reminder of his previous treatment made her feel like biting someone. When another, more insistent flare touched her senses, she allowed her disquieted spirit to answer with one of those rude youki splinters he was so fond of shooting her way. She glared at the scenery rushing before her, waiting. After a few moments of blurred trees and no response, she realized there wasn't going to be one. Huffing angrily, she spurred herself to even more speed. _Now_ he was going to leave her in peace. The ground trembled under the impact of her feet.

It was strange to see, Fuko the cheery dog demoness, believer in the power of positive thinking, frowning as she ran with such thrilling swiftness. In her mind ran varied but simultaneous tirades, all of them condemning the unfriendly inu youkai who apparently disdained the very idea of reciprocity. She just could not seem to hold on to the good will with which she'd tried to meet the Western Lord. Maybe because she did not enjoy having it thrown in her face

But behind her anger, shades of sadness, confusion, and even loneliness loomed. She just couldn't understand why something that had seemed so promising was falling apart_._

Days ago, on the evening of the snake ambush, he'd invited her to spar with him after he'd returned from his nightly jaunt. She had gladly accepted. The first time had been fun, not to mention that this invitation was the first near-civil thing she'd seen from him. She was actually more excited than she let on with her casual, "Sure.". He was a magnificent fighter, and she just knew she could learn a lot from him.

After appointing Jaken the guard, He led her away from the camp where Rin and Ah-Un slumbered and into a clearing about a mile away. They fought much as they had the first time, with the same rules and similar attacks, but it was still as interesting and trying as facing off against a new opponent. He proved that he couldn't be taken in by the same trick twice and more than once Fuko had to reach for styles and tactics half-forgotten from disuse. Falling into old patterns brought back so many memories, and also gave her new chances to innovate. If anything, the second night of sparring was more rewarding than the first, and she was exhilarated anew, sweat-touched and out of breath. He had been pleased as well, and she knew this by no other sign than his short graceful bow after he called a halt to the match. To her, his bow communicated concisely every nuance of the things she wanted to say, like 'that was great' and 'I really enjoyed myself', so she copied him without wasting words.

After they had cleaned themselves, he with a subtle burst of youki, her with fox fire immolation, and dressed in their outer layers, he sat amongst an untouched patch of grass and gestured for her to join him. Surprised, she had complied.

"Tell me of your training," he had said, seeming the epitome of polite interest.

She snorted now, leaping over a stream. Tell me of your training, indeed.

()()()()()()()()()()(Then…)()()()()()()()()()()

Fuko sat up a little straighter, inspecting with care the face of the male sitting across from her. He was expressionless as ever, but his eyes were focused on her without veiled contempt for the first time. He wanted to know more about her style, was perhaps as appreciative of her martial skill as she was of his. It was no vow of everlasting friendship, but it was certainly a big unexpected step in the right direction. Her fingertips formed a pleased steeple in front of her as she smiled at him. "Well, I've had a lot of training in a lot of places. What would you like to hear about first?"

"From whom did you first receive your training?"

"My first? That's hard to quantify. With some things, my parents trained me from the moment I was born. Was that the same for you?" She was interested and her ears tipped forward to show it.

"It was." His tone was peremptory.

"Oh." Warned off that topic, she moved on. "Well, beyond basic control of youki, my father taught me to meditate and my mother taught me to hunt. Ah, did they teach me how to fight? It's hard to recall exactly what I learned from them and what I had figured out on my own."

Fuko fell silent. How long had it been since she tried to remember her dam and sire? Too long, apparently. She vaguely remembered pedagogic tones and a guiding touch, but their voices were lost. Their exact features escaped her. His was a hazy figure with a gentle voice and firm hands. She was a warm, furry body, smelling of milk and comfort. She remembered the scent of them both clearly, but little else.

Abruptly, the demon lord prompted, "Your training."

"Oh. Sorry." Fuko sat up straight. "I suppose my first formal training in hand-to-hand combat came from Nomukyo, a fox demon." Just saying the name transported her. She could see his grinning face easily. "We were both young, smaller than Rin is." She nodded to herself, beginning to recall in greater detail, "His family had sequestered themselves in a little isolated valley so they could train their young and we had happened to settle on the mountain side nearby for the winter. He was looking for someone to practice his fox magic on, so he agreed to teach me what he was learning if I would spar with him. He wanted to get better than his cousin, who he hated. Tatsuya wasn't that bad, really—but, anyway, Nomukyo taught me what he knew of the Ii-Kitsune ryu. It's a style that his family had been developing since the time of his great-great-grandfather, the nine-tailed Hatsumura. Have you heard of—no? Well, the Ii-Kitsune ryu still informs my style today. I've had to adapt it as I've grown, and I've incorporated other styles, but I think if we ever met again, Nomukyo would recognize it. We were really great friends." Her smile gained a bittersweet edge and she wondered, had leaving him behind so suddenly broken that friendship? Catching herself before she slipped into more sentimental recollection, she continued with forced cheer, "Even though we were the same age, he was an excellent sensei. I owe him a lot. He's the one who taught me fox magic as well, so you have him to thank!"

When his expression didn't change at all, Fuko gave a single awkward chuckle and scratched the back of her head. "Well. How about you, Lord Sesshomaru? Where did your formal training begin?"

One eye brow rose slightly as he gave her an equable look. "Tutors."

She waited. A breeze came and tousled her hair, and she noticed that his remained untouched. When she realized that he wasn't going to expand on that, she had a vague sense of being snubbed, but she tamped it down. She couldn't fault him if his personality prevented him from being more engaging. She tried prodding him. "So, your first tutor taught you what, exactly?"

"What it was necessary to learn in order to move on to the next."

"Oh." She blinked. "So, there was a tiered structure already in place when you were growing up, like a school." Pleased with this little bit of information, she asked. "Do you recall any of your tutors especially?"

"No."

Maybe it was his tone, but Fuko replied immediately, "Liar." When he stiffened, taking offense, but she smiled at him in an attempt to be cajoling. "Come on. Tell me, which tutor was it?"

"It is none of your concern." His voice had regained that arctic tone that had been absent all night.

Fuko's ears flicked downward. "Oh? I apologize if I'm making you uncomfortable. I just thought we were getting to know each other."

"Hn."

She wondered how he could possibly put so much ice behind a simple noise. It was probably his eyes.

"Where did you learn that under-hand strike?"

Fuko sat back, noting the abrupt subject change, but she was willing to press on. She knew he was speaking of the blow she had dealt to his jaw that had staggered him during the match, allowing her the chance to knock him off his feet. Maybe this story would engage him a little more. "You must be wondering how I got so much power behind it at such close range. I used two hands." She placed her left hand under her right elbow and drove the heels of her hands upward sharply. "It requires no youki."

When he nodded in seeming encouragement, she continued, "I learned it from an earth hermit in the Badlands. It is one of the Twelve-Fold Strikes of the Red Mountain, of which I know ten. This was when I was bigger, still small though, a little shorter than Rin is." She looked up and to the right as she tried to remember the circumstances. "Um, I was lost in a dry wasteland, even though I had _just _left a seaside city—which was odd—and I was beset by a ground whale. Not what you're thinking. It looked more like a salamander, but because of the size, they were called ground whales. Anyway, they're just animals, so I wasn't in any danger, but I must have looked venerable, because this big old guy with a filthy beard and a torn gi comes flying out of nowhere—he had jumped off a cliff from behind me, he couldn't really fly—and knocks the beast out with a single strike." Fuko viciously drove the flat of her hand downward once, rending the air with a sound like ripping cloth. The resulting gust blew her bangs up. She smiled at him again as they settled back into place.

"I know either one of us could do that now, but I was still little and this guy was human—" At his raised brow she said, "Yes, human. An old one. Anyway, I was a voracious learner and instead of thanking him I demanded that he teach me. I must have followed him around for a week." She shook her head, embarrassed. "I could be really annoying when I wanted. But, when he realized I wasn't human, he became intrigued. There were only a few low-level demons around this place, you see, and they avoided people. He thought I was a 'Child of the Mountain', stuff of legend. Anyway, he taught me ten of the twelve-fold strikes, and would have taught me the eleventh at least—there was some problem with the twelfth—but I got lost hunting one day and couldn't find my way back."

Fuko paused, falling into remembrance. Huge dark trees and smoky air. A heavy-set man with ancient eyes sitting across a fire. "I hope he found what he was looking for out there. He was on a pilgrimage." She shifted, troubled. "He was a very quiet and a little out of it sometimes. I only knew him for a few weeks, but still, I hate not being able to say goodbye to people, you know?"

Sesshomaru looked like he didn't know.

She shrugged a little. "Well, that's how I learned that move, anyway."

He stared for a long moment and the only movement in the clearing was the slight swaying of the grass. Fuko resisted fidgeting.

"Why would you seek to learn from a human?"

Her ears twitched, just the hint of a future bob. "He was a good fighter."

His eyes narrowed slightly. "You say that this 'land whale' was no threat, why should you have been impressed?"

"Well, think about it. If he, as a human, could put that kind of power behind a single punch, a naturally stronger being could accomplish that much more with the same technique. I wanted to learn."

"Hn." He stared ahead again, seeming to digest her story.

They sat in silence for a while. Another breeze came and he remained as oddly unruffled as before. That's weird, she thought_._

Fuko tucked her hands into her sleeves. "So," she said. "Did you learn alone, or did you have classmates?"

His eyes remained unfocused. "As the son of the Great Inu no Taisho, no expense was spared in my instruction."

"And by that you mean, they were private tutors," she guessed after a long pause. "Hm. Inu no Taisho, that sounds like an impressive title. Is that a dynastic name or...?"

His gaze turned suddenly sharp and scornful. "Do not feign ignorance."

Her ears flattened. "I'm not."

"You know of the West. You must know of my father."

"Apparently not." The words were meant to be contrite, but they came out rueful.

He glared and she winced.

The demoness flicked her gaze around, looking for solutions in the trees. It seemed like conversation with this guy was fraught with hidden peril. "I don't know if I told you this, but I'm not from around here. And I don't have much occasion for gossip. If there's something I should know but don't, please don't be surprised." There was a long pause, and to her it seemed his glare eased. She started again, feeling hesitant. "So, your father? He's famous, then?"

Slowly, he responded, "His name is one recognized the world over."

"For?"

"Conquest." After a moment he added, "He bolstered the Western Lands immeasurably during his reign. The title referred to him as the Dog General."

"Oh." It took a second, but she did notice the past tense he had used. She wondered, was his father dead? He was the lord of the West now, so it made sense. She still didn't want to ask. "You could say martial prowess runs in the family, then," she said brightly.

The quickest glint of some emotion appeared and disappeared from his eyes and he didn't confirm or deny her guess.

After a moment, he stood. "Come."

Surprised, she followed him and they walked back to the others in silence. In fact, the daiyoukai didn't speak to her directly all that day and into the evening, until that night when he appeared on the edge of their current campsite, half obscured in shadow.

"Come," he said.

How eerie, she thought, but she followed him then, unsure of his intent but willing to wait and see when he wouldn't respond to her questions. Until they reached a large clearing some three miles away, she thought he might be taking her somewhere private to tell her something about Rin. She had spent the day trading stories with her, many of them containing descriptions of her most favorite landscapes, and she had noted the demon lord's restrained interest. But, upon reaching the clearing, he indicated that they would spar.

Truly, such pleasures she had not known since she was young, actually _learning_ from her opponents. While it at times required strategic thought, sparring like this took mainly instinct, reflex, and complete corporeal harmony. It blurred the line between two feet and four, and Fuko loved that, but to actually hone her skills in a meaningful way made her nearly giddy.

It was hours before he called a halt with the sun was just beyond the horizon, but even with this indication of the time, he sat as he had last night.

Fuko was still shaking the fox fire from her fingertips, going over and over the fight in her mind. If a winner need be declared, this was the demon lord's match. Tonight it almost seemed that he could read her mind. Next time, she resolved not to be so predictable—and to avoid the guy's elbows. Absently rubbing the still smarting knot on top of her head, she sat across from him.

"You cannot truly have traveled to such places," he began as if they were already mid-conversation.

"Um. But I have."

"The things you speak of are impossible."

"They're just not here." She frowned, trying to think of how to explain. Certain people refused to believe a thing they hadn't seen for themselves. "That's how it works. Some places have deserts and some places have forests."

"Floating mountains can hardly be compared to a simple grouping of trees," he said. "You will stop plying Rin with such fantastic lies."

She huffed and resigned herself to being misunderstood. "They're not lies. But, Rin is your child. If you don't want her to hear about such things, then of course I'll stop."

He grunted, and then asked, "What affiliations do you claim?"

"What?"

He spoke slowly then, and almost insultingly so. "With whom do you ally yourself? What titles and positions have you held?"

A little annoyed_, _she hedged, explaining that anything she told him would seem as incredible as floating mountains. He demanded with varying levels of intensity that she essentially think of something reasonable to tell him. She then pointed out that he was asking her to lie to him, and he got a bit belligerent, claiming that, among other things, she had no sense of reality.

As a result, discussions ended on a sour note, and the silence was strained all that day and into the evening until, again, Sesshomaru appeared in the edge of the camp, beckoning to her like a ghost. This guy is so pale, she thought, but even then she only briefly considered turning him down. Sparring was just too great a lure, and the negative feelings never truly arose until after, when he questioned her. Besides the dubious way he approached her every night, never quite the civil invitation that had been issued the first time, Fuko got the sense that the goings on after their matches were not so much conversations as they were interrogations. All of her questions were deflected or left half answered, and anything she told him that didn't mesh with his expectations was challenged.

This will work out, she told herself, rising to her feet to follow him. We just needed to get used to each other.

And so the pattern held: days of stilted discourse exclusively having to do with Rin and nights of educational roughhousing, immediately followed by frustrating, non-communicative exchanges, which then lent themselves to tenser days.

Until, of course, things came to a head.

The sun had completely surmounted the horizon when he finally called a halt to the match. At his signal, she bowed deeply, but quickly, like a weight on a pendulum, and then was up and bounding over to her clothes. It was her match today, most definitely. Upon landing next to her gear, she set herself alight in cleansing fox fire with a loud _whoosh. _The bright flames soared, seemingly out of control, but Fuko stood among them swaying slightly, just restraining herself from bouncing. When was the last time she had surprised herself like this? She hadn't even remembered learning Muay Thai boxing until he backed her into a corner!

"Girl!"

Startled, Fuko turned and looked back. Sesshomaru still stood in the field, and sheathed in indigo plasma as she was, his pale skin, hair and clothing were tinged blue. Smurfin' smurf,she thought and grinned.

He bared his teeth in response. "You will cease your display."

She widened her eyes, squelching the smile. "I'm not doing anything."

He stepped forward challengingly. "Restrain yourself. Now."

She touched her cheek doubtfully. "What could you mean by that?" Even as she said this, the flames swelled higher.

"I will not repeat myself."

Her ears fell flat, pointing to either side.

He stepped forward again, and a growl rumbled through the morning air.

Finally sensing the complete seriousness of her sparring partner, Fuko quelled the flames. "You're such a buzz-kill," she grumbled.

"What?" The word was dangerously soft. He was now walking toward her.

"I said, buzz-kill," she called. "It means you resist fun and stop others from having it."

"You dare mock me?" His tone crackled with ice.

Fuko rolled her eyes as she turned away. The flames were out now, and she plopped to the ground beside her spear. She flipped her hair forward, off her neck, and began to comb through the silky curtain with her claws. She could feel him standing behind her, but she was fairly certain he wouldn't lash out. They were still so fresh from sparring, and that would be against the rules.

"Do not think to ignore this Sesshomaru." The chill of his voice was really quite impressive, but it barely fazed her anymore. Over-exposure had left her numb to the cold.

"I am not ignoring Lord Sesshomaru, I am combing my hair."

"You will face me when you speak."

She shrugged and remained silent.

He was still behind her when she brushed her hair back and gave her head a small shake to re-settle the strands around her ears and over her shoulders. They were soft against her nape, but she wondered if she ought to replace the hair tie she had lost in battle. She glanced over her shoulder and Sesshomaru was still towering over her. She could at least tell that he was trying to intimidate her.

She sighed, "Since neither of us is in a great mood right now, why don't we skip the conversation?"

He crouched, and then his face was only half a foot hers. His eyes glinted like frozen shards of tourmaline. "You will answer my questions."

Her eyebrow quirked. "You don't answer _my_ questions."

"And yet you will answer mine."

"You know what? I don't think I will." With that, she turned her back.

For just a second, Fuko thought she felt a short sharp breath on the back of her neck. Then, he seized her nape with bruising force and hauled her up. The pain was nothing compared to the insult of it, and in pure reaction, she twisted in his grip and kicked downward hard and fast at his shin. He dropped her like a hot coal, snarling, and the next few moments were filled with snarling, and aggressive posturing, as they leapt away from each other and circled. Their fangs were bared, twisting each face into an animalistic mask that revealed more of the beast within than the more docile expressions of only seconds before. Tension lengthened their limbs and their eyes flashed, looking an opening. If they weren't so evenly match, one would have lunged at the other. However, as the seconds ticked by, and the tension began to ease. Fuko planted her feet resolutely, and the circling stopped.

"Who-," she coughed and ran her tongue quickly over the roof of her mouth. It was difficult to switch from dog-speak to human so suddenly. "Who do you think you are!?"

He spoke though his snarl, and it added a rumbling bass to his voice. "I am one who will not be disrespected by one such as you."

"Disre-," Another growl escaped from her before she could continue. "What _disrespect?_ I've done nothing to you that you haven't done-"

"You will _not_ turn your back-"

"_You _turn your-,"

"You will not ignore-,"

"Are you kidding me?"

"_You will not interrupt!_"

Fuko's ears snapped back and she just barely resisted flinching, the volume and the suddenness were that jarring. The silence after his outburst was penetrated only by a tinny ringing in her ears. In the absence of his inflaming words, she notice for the first time that there were _emotions _on his face, clear and easy to read. Mostly anger, but something lingered on the edges of this, giving her pause. When the ringing subsided, she said evenly, "I treat you as you have treated me."

"And who are _you_ to think that you could treat this one as an equal?"

To her, his snarl seemed vaguely… disingenuous. Her brow wrinkled as she said slowly, "One who refuses to be disrespected by anyone, even one such as you."

He took two quick steps toward her as he growled out, "You would mock me even now."

She stood her ground, and her head tipped slightly to the side as she asked. "Mock you, LordSesshomaru? Who would dare?"

His teeth bared and his fingers curled into talons at his sides. "Do not provoke me."

"Don't be provoked." Her ears bobbed. "Aren't you overreacting? I've only ever tried to preserve my own dignity-,"

"Girl, you tread on thin ice!" He stepped forward again. "Whatever dignity I allow you is something to be thankful for."

This time she matched him, stepping boldly forward so that they were now within each other's reach. She was annoyed by the certain yet nebulous sense that she no longer knew what they were arguing about. "Are you listening to yourself?"

His eyes narrowed.

"No, really. What you just said doesn't make any sense."

They stared at each other.

"Because dignity is self-respect. You can't control what I feel for myself unless I let you."

He reached for her then, fast, but not nearly fast enough to catch her if she had dodged. But she didn't dodge. She let him fist his hand in the front of her kosode and haul her forward. When he saw that she only hung limply in his grasp, he gripped her throat with his free hand. She slowly grabbed his wrist, but otherwise didn't retaliate.

His expression shifted, just fractionally, but it was enough to reveal the confusion that had been buried. "If you are so concerned with your dignity, why are you allowing this?"

A growl still rumbled behind his words, but Fuko disregarded it. "I'm just am." Her ears tipped forward. "Do you want me to struggle?"

His lip tensed, again baring fang, and his grip on her throat tightened a bit. "I could kill you."

She put her free hand high on his chest and let her claws catch in the fine silk of his clothes. A very slight tug exposed the hollow of his throat.

He started visibly and jerked her to the side, removing her hand. "Stop it." He gave her one hard shake. "Stop this foolishness."

"No." Fuko squeezed his wrist. "_You _stop it."

Because she was looking right into his face, she saw the split second of naked confusion before he thrust her away and took a half step back.

They stared at each other for a few seconds. She was tousled despite having just fixed her hair. Her near psychedelic kimono was still lay in a hastily folded bundle over her spear, so it was the pure soft muslin white of her kosode hat stood out in the morning sun. Her eyes were wide and searching, seeing more than the demon lord was comfortable with, but actually understanding very little. And just as she was without her usual colors, he was unusually mussed, still touched with the sweat of their struggle and ruffled by the wind. One rebel lock of hair jutted out at an odd angle from his bangs. It was boyish. His eyes were narrowed slightly, his expression guarded, but his look clearly said to her, _who is this odd person_? Neither breathed into this still, tense moment.

Hesitantly, Fuko offered a little smile—and saw the exact moment he rejected it. It was like watching shutters fall between them.

The cold expressionlessness of his face disturbed her more than it had before. His aura began to swell and Fuko reflexively tensed and checked her points of reference. Her spear was still on the ground, to her right; Jaken's staff was far and away behind her, perhaps eight and a half miles in that direction. But, making it back to camp wasn't the problem. She had a feeling that witnesses wouldn't stop him. If he acted with killing intent now, what could she do?

His power built, until it reached the point that purified his skin, burning off dirt and sweat, leaving his hair free to settle back into its unruffled state.

Relieved, she let the tension ease out of her shoulders.

"You," His power rippled over her then, sudden and grating, worse than sand, like falling into a patch of brambles, only it wasn't her skin being scratched. "will answer my questions."

She gasped, "Stop-"

The sensations intensified and vertigo struck with enough force to make her stagger. "What do you hope to gain from the West?"

"I said stop!"

He bore down, but her power answered, clashing with an audible crackle and visible sparks. Their youki whipped around them like a whirlwind, blowing back leaves, dust, and pebbles. Encircled by her own demon energy, she was safe, but the effects of his aura could still be felt.

"I'm not answering anymore questions." The ill winds whipping around them burst suddenly with a flash of blue. She stepped back and gave a short, sharp bow. "See you back at camp." Fuko then scooped up her things with a huff and stormed out so quickly that the air clapped loudly into the vacuum she left behind.

()()()()()()()(Now)()()()()()()()

She relived the argument, growling long and low, and with every footfall thought of a new insult against the arrogant male: stupid, patronizing, dirty, rotten, stinking, no good, jerk, idiot, arrogant, jackass, jerk…

She kept repeating herself, but this could be excused for the fact that her every footfall was coming perhaps fifteen or sixteen milliseconds after the last.

As the demoness growled to herself and wore a perfectly circular path twenty miles in diameter in the earth, the forest beyond the perimeter of her territory began to fall curiously silent without her notice. One by one, animals paused in their daily activities, lifted quivering noses to the air for a moment, and then scattered. The tree spirits that had been forced out had long since fled to the ether, but the petty demons of dirt and decay, which manifested in forms like beetles and centipedes, were now abandoning the holes and burrows to the south. Despite their desperate flight, those with the capacity to feel it felt vindication. They felt the rumbling of the earth and knew the reigning king of is particular stretch of forest was on his way to kill the intruder.

Only when Fuko accidentally trampled a shambling fungus demon did she brake from her rant.

"What the hell?!" she cried as she skidded to a stop, throwing up a rooster-tail of dust and gravel that was blown away an instant later by her windage. When she looked behind her to see what she had hit, there looked to be only a gray and brown smear on the path. The scent told her more. "Oh! I'm sorry!" She jogged back. "Hello? Little fella? Are you alright?"

She stood helplessly over the flattened mushroom demon for a second before taking out her spear and jabbing it into the earth beside it. Chikyukiba unlocked the earth's energy and guided it into the injured creature. It began to inflate and a minute later, it sat up.

"You're okay." Fuko helped it to its nubby, taupe-colored feet. "I'm really sorry I squished you."

The fungus turned to face her. Maybe. He (she?) looked like a common mushroom, though over-grown and with disembodied nubby limbs. The top of its fleshy brown cap only came to her knee. Still taller than Jaken, she thought. From what she could see, it had no fingers, no mouth, no eyes, and no ears, but it seemed to orient on her and emit a garbled wail.

"I said I was sorry."

It twirled back and forth quickly.

"Um. Are you dancing?"

It wailed, tipped its cap from side-to-side twice, and then trundled away into the underbrush.

"Weird." Fuko limbered her spear as she stared after the little creature.

In the next instant, a screech as big as the mountains ripped through the air, crumpling her ears. Her head bowed under the bone shaking noise and her hands involuntarily came up to cover her ears, but that paltry defense could not stop the assault. A secondary reaction, one born of a life time of unpredictable opponents, came a second later and had her youki ballooning out and solidifying into a barrier. Inside she was able to drop her hands and look up.

Her spear was back in hand and her body falling into the rhythms of battle before she really processed the entirety what she was looking at. And then she snapped, "What the hell!?"

To her, it seemed she was being confronted with a boss battle without having accepted the quest or fought the minions. The creature before her was a leviathan of craggy rock, animated by a demon aura of equal size and ominous, murky color. Its fore limbs were reminiscent of a gorilla's, but the hind were round, formless stubs. A ridge of sharp spires ran from the tip of its prehistoric tail, along the hunched back, up and over its head, and down its long face to end in a cluster of spines where a nose should have been. The eyes, set close together, were two black pits from which two points of dingy yellow light emanated.

Sesshomaru, who had long been aware of the approach of the giant rock demon, stood concealed in the bower of a large camphor tree and watched the behemoth crash through the last strand of forest between it and the female. Again, it opened its cavernous mouth and unleashed that hair-raising screech.

This time, Fuko of the North was unfazed, but she did not answer the challenge directly. He smirked, for he knew she could not. Instead, she paced back and forth in front of the demon with her spear in hand. She yelled, "Go away! I'm warning you, I'm in no mood!" He could hear her snarling even at this great distance. He suppressed a laugh, wanting to ask, what good are your threats when you can't follow through?

The stone beast reared back and then lunged forward, driving both fists into the ground, creating a shockwave that made the earth under her feet dip and crest like waves in the ocean, rolling trees and shrubbery into the undertow. She leapt over those crushing waves, bouncing from crest to crest, before landing untouched on the broken ground left behind. The blades of her Chikyukiba flashed deep blue and she swung it, sending out several youki blades in a second. They all burst over the ridge of the demon's snout, but the attack was shrugged off with a mighty shake of its head.

It used its weighty hind limbs to propel itself forward until it was toeing the invisible line demarking the female's territory. Sesshomaru watched with gleaming eyes as she blurred toward it—and came up short suddenly. Then again, she retreated, lunged toward the nearest part of her challenger, only to pull up short without making contact. The look of frustration on her face brought a rare and genuine smile to his.

It was as he had surmised. The strange glyph on Jaken's staff was her doing, and it tied her to its location. This, it seemed, was the outer reaches of that tie. In hearing account after account over the past few days, not just the ones she gave him, but those she told to Rin in his hearing, he came to believe in her disability. It was true that she could not navigate any significant distance without help. It had seemed too odd and too convenient before, especially considering that she tracked him for days before he realized she was following him, but since spying the unknown symbol in the fire light several nights ago, he'd thought it might be true. What he wondered now was how she could be so foolish as to share her weakness with anyone who asked.

Again, the beast screeched. It slouched forward and swatted at her, slamming one palm down in an attempt to crush her, but, of course, she was too fast. Before the hand could be withdrawn, she was upon it with movements too quick to see, though the clamorous sound of metal on stone rang out several dozen times. It lifted its hand away, screaming, and Sesshomaru could see from his distance perch that several deep cracks marred the surface. He snorted. It did not surprise him, but it did denigrate his satisfaction. Given time, she would defeat this king of the forest.

Sesshomaru leapt lightly from his perch and then skimmed along the tree tops until he was on the edge of the rough clearing made by the stone demon's attacks. He paused, waiting until she had her back to him before stepping out of the shadows and striding toward the heart of the battle. His aura was concealed from her—saturating her senses with it served to do more than just amuse him, so perhaps she somehow heard his silent footfalls because she called out to him without having to look back, "Get back! I've got this."

He smirked and answered with the ring of Bakusaiga being unsheathed. He dashed forward just as she leapt back from another swat, and he made it a point to sweep her aside as he went.

The demon lord confronted the stone beast and swelled his aura to titanic proportions. The demon reared in reaction before its luminous eyes fixated on him. Its aura grew noticeably darker and its mouth hung open in a mockery of a grin. It recognized him.

Sesshomaru had passed through this forest a year prior on his way to investigate the claims of an unstoppable force in the abandoned Chubu region. That had turned out to be an undead ghoul that fed on the aggression of others, a being so easily slain by Tenseiga that he'd spent the next week tracking down his informants and punishing them according to their guilt. However, when he stopped here to allow Rin to fulfill her humanly needs, he had been mildly impressed by the unknown stone chimera that had shown up to challenge him. Its youki burned with the desire to defend its territory, and especially considering its imperviousness to youki-based attacks, he had hoped it would be a more worthy adversary given a few more decades to strengthen. He had waylaid battle then with a barrier and the beast had spent the night roaring indignantly at a distance.

Now, it hissed, "Die!"

Sesshomaru tsked.

The battle was not easy, but it was disappointingly simple with very few surprises. He knew ranged youki attacks were useless, but he had no want of physical strength, so when he blurred toward the beast's face and swung Bakusaiga at those strange spiked nostrils, there were no defenses beyond the dense composition of the creatures flesh. It was not enough. Though he had to put a considerable amount of force behind every swing, the gray rock eventually cracked and splintered before falling away. Enraged by the shattering of its nose, it reared back on its hunches and pawed at the air. Sesshomaru could not maneuver on his cloud of youki with the same agility he had on foot, but he could dodge this thoughtless flailing. The beast then stretched open its mouth unto to point of unhinging and its aura concentrated fiercely in the black depths. The demon lord saw the energy blast coming long before it was summoned up, and so evasion was easy. He even had time to position himself in front of the demoness who stood in audience, forcing her to leap clear of the line of fire when the beam was finally unleashed. He flew up and around then, moving to sink his sword into the joint between the creature's arm and shoulder, but the boulders forming the arm and the ball of the joint creaked loudly as he grew near, and then began to gyrate so rapidly that they blurred, threatening to crush any appendage caught in the spin. He backed off, but then attacked the trunk of the body with pure crushing force. He proceeded to demolish the beast bit by bit, avoiding the joints and crevices that could turn into deadly traps, until the stone demon was veined through the cracks and crumbling with every movement.

After hours of being chipped slowly into gravel, long after its past opponents had died of exhaustion, the hulking figure finally turned to flee. It shook the earth with its desperate movements, but it was far too late. Sesshomaru kept after it, focusing in on a particularly deep crack that bisected its back. Within moments, it gave its dying screech, disassembling into lifeless boulders and creating formations that would give birth to numerous folk legends among humans in thirty or forty years' time.

Sesshomaru banked his cloud slowly over the scattered remains of his opponent, slightly wearied, looking idly down and wondering if the battle would have been more satisfying in a century. Then he spied Fuko watching from the tree line and any regrets over plucking this particular fruit too early fled his mind. He flew back towards the female and alighted in front of her, regarding her with cool superiority, but with an undeniably expectant glint in his eyes.

Fuko, who usually had such an animated face, only had the slightest pout to accompany her bland expression. She leaned against a tree that had been knocked askew by the battle with her arms crossed in front of her. After a moment of staring at each other, her right ear twitched and she said, "Good job."

His eyes narrowed fractionally, but then he affected a casual air. "This Sesshomaru was merely making up for your shortcomings."

She huffed. "I could have beaten that demon."

"And yet you did not."

Her fingers flexed against her upper arms, claws catching against the cloth. "Not because I _couldn't_. And I didn't have to, did I? You rushed in ahead of me." She rolled off the tree and moved to leave, but made it only half a step before he blocked her path. She glared at him. "Move."

He ignored that with an answering glare. "I stepped in because you appeared hesitant." She started to brush passed him, but he shot out a hand, barring her way and striking the tilted tree with enough force to knock off bark. "Tell me," he said slowly, leaning in, "what held you back?"

Her eyes narrowed and her soft exhale brushed his face. She said, "I was just keeping it from stepping into my territory."

Sesshomaru gave a very small smile and took care to memorize the scent of her dishonesty. "Is that so?"

He heard the growl for a split second and it was his only warning. Her palm painfully flattened his nose as she smacked him away, snapping, "Get your face away from my face!"

He reflexively turned away from the pain, and by the time he turned back—to gut her? To choke her to death? — she was twenty yards beyond him, having ducked under his arm.

Her ears were flattened hard against her head and she stomped her foot as she shouted at him, "You are a super annoying guy!" And then she was gone.

The sting in his nose was nothing at all compared to the unmitigated insult. For a long time afterward, he was frozen, staring with blank red eyes at the tilted tree, which he still had a restraining hand against. He was warring within himself and any outward movement would have released the raging energies inside.

At first, there were no thoughts. With his inner animal so close to control and her scent so fresh in his burning nose, there were only visions of her pinned and submissive. He ached for the sound of her whimpering and the scent of her fear. His limbs burned with new strength, and he knew—_knew_ if he could just get his hands on her, he could repay her twenty-fold for the pain and degradation, make her apologize, make her submit. _Submit_, yes. The word fired him. His fingers curled into the wood of the much abused tree and his claws began to leak dokkaso into the core. If he could just get his hands on her, he could make her.

The dilemma triggered his reason and his first thought was to chase her. She was far too quick to catch, but he knew where she was going. He would drag her out of camp, preferably by those ridiculous ears, force her to the ground somewhere and make her show her belly. But, he could not hope she would stand still for such treatment. How could he make her, short of beating her unconscious? Not that he was adverse to the idea. Still, to arrive back at camp, red-eyed and snarling after that damned female when she was most likely already in the arms of Rin, who was now forever saying -_chan, -chan, -chan _until the word was a clanging in his ears—no. He would not give her the satisfaction of seeing how she affected him.

His next thought was to call her out. She would answer a challenge—he knew now that his first impression of her was wrong on all counts. Fuko of the North had an indomitable will to fight. If he could tap into it just long enough to lure her into a secluded area, he could… violate the terms set by their first duel.

Sesshomaru cursed and yanked his claws out of the tree, which creaked and then folded in on itself. As it toppled, the trunk cracked open, releasing a cloud of rancid green smoke and revealing the deep corrosion inside. The sight and smell reminded him of the swath of trees he had felled in just the same way last night as he worked through his reactions to her storming out. Slowly, he flicked the last of the acidic poison from his claws. He had resolved not to do this again. He had shaped this plan to avoid just such an eventuality.

He hissed at himself, "And how quickly she has made you forget this." He reached up and stroked the mokomoko, roughly smoothing down the fur that had been standing on end, and then turned to walk back to camp. Such volatile reactions were less than what one would expect from the lord of the Western Lands, heir to the House of the Moon, a daiyoukai said to have the strength and ruthlessness to rule the world.

He continued to pet the fur as he walked, breathing deeply to combat the haze of red that still lingered on the edges of his vision. Time passed slowly, and he focused down on the seconds, on his footfalls, and eventually on twitter of returning birds. By the time he approached the small clearing where Jaken had set up the fire, he was back in complete control.

Ahead, he could sense the demoness was not there. The clearing was empty save for the imp, and he jumped up when Sesshomaru became visible through the trees.

"Milord!" Jaken ran up to him. "I'm glad you're back, milord. I trust that fool rock demon is no more. Ah! What am I saying? Of course such an unworthy creature-"

"Where are the others?"

"Oh, that accursed female! She took Rin off into the woods! I tried to stop her—"

Sesshomaru moved swiftly, blurring into the trees beyond the imp, where he could sense her aura. His mind was all at once consumed with protecting Rin, but back in the recesses he was stunned with disbelief. How had he not seen it, not even suspected, when he knew that his enemies would not hesitant to spill a child's blood? It was suspect from the start, her shadowy history and her fixation on Rin. Somehow, with her attitude, she had fooled him into believing in her harmlessness as easily as she had seduced Rin into believing in their friendship. Even now, he could not imagine what she would do, or what she had done in the long minutes that she had had his human pup alone in these woods.

Left far behind, poor Jaken stumbled after him, calling, "Wait! Wait! Milord, please! She took Rin to bathe! Lord Sesshomaru!" The kappa youkai tripped over a root and fell on his face. He lay there for a long moment, wondering whether or not he should get up. Perhaps his lord would not kill him if he already appeared to be dead.

Jaken then began to weep slow, bitter tears. Playing dead had never worked before!

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Fuko sighed as she grew the wide-toothed comb through Rin's wet, soapy hair, deciding that complaining about Sesshomaru to his number-one fan hadn't been such a great idea. "I don't know, Rin-chan. Let's just forget it."

"We can't forget it!" The girl whirled, flinging soap and water everywhere. Ah-Un groaned indignantly from the shore of the creek, but Rin was too caught up in her plan. "Fuko-chan, if you just show Lord Sesshomaru how nice you are and that you like him then he'll like you back!"

"But isn't that what I've been doing?"

Rin's hands formed fist under her chin and she gave Fuko a look of such intensity that it set her aback. "You have to do it harder! Practice makes you better!"

"Easier said than done. Besides, I don't really like him."

Rin's cheeks puffed out angrily. She looked like a furious chipmunk. "Fuko-chan! Don't say that! Practice!"

Her ears fell against her head. Who knew a naked girl child could be so intimidating? "What, practice liking him?" Fuko sighed again, sitting down in the water and handing Rin the comb. "And how do I do that? Ow."

"Sorry." Rin didn't sound very sorry, but she did stop combing her hair so roughly. "Just think of all the good things about Lord Sesshomaru! Like—his hair."

"His hair?"

"Yes! He has the longest, prettiest, softest, most beautiful—"

"Most pale."

"Yeah!" She patted Fuko on the head in encouragement.

"He's pale all over, actually," Fuko continued.

"Um, yeah."

"Like a ghost."

"Um."

"Like a creepy, suck-your-soul-out specter from Spooksville— Ow!"

"Practice harder!"

Rin proceeded to comb Fuko's hair very roughly, even her ears, which, she had been told in the past, didn't need to be combed at all.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Fuko finally pulled away, covering her ears protectively. "You act a lot like your father sometimes, you know that!?"

Rin relented immediately. "My… my father? What do you mean, Fuko-chan?"

"Your Lord Sesshomaru gets especially mean when he doesn't get his way. That's not a very attractive feature, Rin-chan." Fuko turned to see the little girl clutching the comb very closely to her chest.

"Lord Sesshomaru isn't my father…," she said.

"Oh," The look on her face was oddly serious, and Fuko ventured hesitantly, "He's like your father."

"But he's not."

"Okay." Fuko took her wrist and pulled her down gently so she sat in the water as well, and then took the comb from her hand. "Here, let me finish your hair." After a little while, she asked, "Do you want him to be?"

"Yes." Rin's answer was decisively quick, and then she continued more slowly, "But he can't be."

"If he adopted you—"

Rin shook her head quickly. "I get in the way too much. I'm too slow. If I was a demon like Lord Sesshomaru, then maybe I could be his daughter. But Rin is just Rin." There was a pause and Fuko was about to cut in, to tell her she was wrong, but the girl continued, "But I try very hard! Rin can keep up better all the time, and she does everything Lord Sesshomaru says so she doesn't get in his way. So _I_ don't get in his way." Rin looked over her shoulder at the demoness and with sparkling eyes finished earnestly, "I will stay by milord's side forever, even if I can't be his daughter."

Fuko regarded the little girl tearfully. "Ah! Rin-chan! Your devotion has inspired me!"

The demoness shot to her feet, splashing water into her companion's face. "I will give Lord Sesshomaru another chance! One who inspires such devotion must have _some_ redeeming qualities!" She pumped one resolute fist into the sky and declared to the invisible stars, "I, Fuko of the North, Guardian of Coh, founder of the Ii-Inu ryu, reluctant deity of the Order of the Disciples, and so on, hereby vow to one day meet Sesshomaru, demon lord of the Western Lands, on the twilight plains of eternity with mutual respect and admiration!"

Though she understood almost nothing about that declaration, Rin jumped to her feet, threw two handfuls of water into the air, and shouted, "Banzai!"

This was how Sesshomaru found them.

Sesshomaru, on his part, realized almost one entire second before he reached the stream that Fuko was not torturing Rin. It was momentum that propelled him to the shore, but he pulled up short just out of the tree line. It took a fraction of a second to process what he saw, and then a couple seconds after that to appreciate it, and then one more second to realize the implications of staring. He was already turning away when Fuko started throwing rocks.

Fuko, on her part, had at first the same reaction as Rin. After an instant of processing, they both sat down. The water, which came up to Rin's armpits, only reached the bottom of Fuko's breasts. It was instinct, then, that had Fuko reaching into the bed of the creek and hauling up stones the size of squirrels to fling at Sesshomaru's face. There was almost no anger at all behind this act.

As a result, Sesshomaru escaped with one knot on the back of his head and only a dozen welts on his back.

When the sounds of his passage faded in the distance and the shrapnel from the stones that missed him stopped falling to the ground, Fuko looked down at Rin with ears drooping guiltily. The little girl was giving her the chipmunk look again.

"Fuko-chan! You need more practice!"

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**Until next time!**

**Chapter VIII: Rivals **


	8. Rivals

**Hello! **

**This wait is ridiculous, right? ****Anyway, the chance to submit a cover is still wide open. **Okay, well, here's another chapter. 

**Also, I don't own Inuyasha. You knew that.**

Miko- priestess. Hanyou- half-demon. Inu- dog. Ookami- wolf. Neko- cat. Ryu- dragon. Kitsune- fox. Youkai- demon. Youki- demon aura/energy. Daiyoukai- great demon. Moko moko- Sesshomaru's fluffy fluffy tail. Kappa- toad. Dokkaso- Sesshomaru's poison. Hime- princess. Kami- gods. Oni- ogre demons. Baka- idiot.

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**Chapter VIII: Rivals**

Shippo the young fox demon bounded down the main road in Edo in the late afternoon, raising a small plume of dust in his wake. The more skittish of the humans in the village shrank from his show of demonic speed, but he couldn't be bothered to pretend right now. He ran down the road, right to the outskirts, and then directly up the side of the priestess Kaede's hut and onto her wood paneled roof.

He moved quickly and silently across the wood, smirking to himself. The patter of his feet wouldn't give him away, nor would his youki. The little fox had taken his stealth training very seriously in the past weeks, and he had been presented with the perfect opportunity to test out his new skills.

Voices below him swelled into laughter and he shifted into a belly crawl on his approach to the opposite edge of the roof. The exchange carried on.

"Well, they certainly are a hand full. That's partly the reason I'm here."

"Oh?"

"Yes, I was hoping Inuyasha would be around."

"He would hardly make a good baby sitter."

They laughed again.

"No, I don't think so either. It's the demon exterminating I need his help with." There was a pause and the sound of tea being sipped. Shippo could smell the tea leaves, and knew the cups were freshly brewed. It was plain to him that their visitor, while unexpected, was warmly received. He wanted to greet him properly too, but first…

There was a sigh. "I do wonder where he gets off to. I know it must seem to him that we only think of him in times of trouble, but—"

"Hush. Inuyasha knows what good friends you and Sango are. The boy may seem thick, but he knows that at least. He understands the strain you all are putting on yourselves, rebuilding a village and starting a family all at once."

There was a low chuckle. "It wasn't as if we planned it that way."

Miroku the Buddhist monk sat on Kaede's porch, arms and legs crossed, a modest cup of tea cradled in one hand. Though the days of constant battle were behind him, in the past like the accursed wind tunnel that once ruled his right hand, he rested his deadly shakujo against his shoulder. He also sported a scrape across his left cheek, a wound from a recent exorcism. He looked pensively at the still forest beyond the village, thinking of his troubled friend and his struggle with heart break.

"Do not dwell on it so, Monk." Kaede placed her cup down in front of her. "Inuyasha will return when he's ready."

Miroku closed his eyes and nodded once. "Of course." But, slowly, his eyes opened and fell on those empty trees again. "Kohaku needed time as well. But even with his injured spirit, he's returned to us."

The old woman merely hummed and for a moment the two sat looking into the trees.

Up on the roof Shippo crouched, no longer so excited about being able to eavesdrop on his friends. It was a credit to his training that his sadness did not lapse his focus and give him away. _Inuyasha, you jerk,_ he thought, biting his lip. _Baka. Everyone misses you._

"So," Miroku suddenly said, "how have things been here in Edo? In need of any exterminating services? As I've said before, you get a discount."

Kaede chuckled softly. "I'm afraid we've had no such problems in a long while, thank the kami. Still trying to drum up business?"

"Sango does believe in on the job training; it's too bad she not in the condition to help teach." He shifted, causing the rings in his staff to jingle. "And it really helps weed out the ones who aren't meant to stay."

"Perhaps it is working too well in that respect."

"I wouldn't say that exactly. Our numbers only dropped off so sharply because over half of the trainees were just dissatisfied farmers. Now that we're down to the tenacious ones, we'll see some progress. And many of those who gave up demon slaying are settling in the village in other capacities. Did you know the thin fellow we picked up last year was a potter's son? He's set up a kiln and is taking work orders now that he's realized he's not cut out for battle."

"Tsujitani? I knew he had promise."

They chatted a while longer about the particulars and hardships Miroku and Sango faced in rebuilding and repopulating the demon exterminator village, but then their discussion slipped into animated retellings of Miroku's children's every development and achievement. After the happy father recounted a fifth incident in which both girls learned some new behavior at exactly the same time, Miroku noticed the sun setting.

"Say, where is Shippo?"

At this, Shippo started awake from his light snooze. He could never listen for long when he lapsed into baby stories. Last time he saw him, all the monk could talk about was the color of infant poop.

"Hm. It is very likely that the boy is off training."

"Training?"

"Indeed. He's received tutoring. We had a demon visitor since we saw you last."

Miroku frowned and shifted. "No trouble, I assume?"

"Not at all. A bit odd, perhaps, but no trouble."

Smirking, Shippo eased toward the edge of the roof and peeked down. At the sight of the familiar monk, his tail wiggled happily, but he quelled this feeling and eased back on his haunches. When Miroku turned his head to look back into the hut, where Kaede was stirring a stew over the fire, Shippo sprang forward, flipping off the roof.

Miroku turned back and yelped when he found Shippo's face inches from his. "Ah!" He lifted his weapon reflexively and then, recognizing the kitsune, guiltily lowered it. "Shippo! You've, ah, grown!"

The young fox laughed, not having noticed how the monk had gripped his staff. "Yep! Grown well enough to sneak up on you!"

Miroku laughed as well. "So you have."

The kit nodded proudly. "All thanks to Fuko."

"What's that?"

"The demon visitor I just spoke of." Kaede brought forth bowls of stew looked askance at the two of them. "Have you cleansed your hands?"

After everyone was prepared and dinner was handed out, the three of them settled in and ate. Shippo finished first and began telling the monk about his friend the dog demoness, tail wiggling.

Miroku listened, interest and misgivings growing in equal proportions, though he only expressed his interest to the boy. He seemed… charmed. Shippo's enthusiastic description, verified by Kaede's silent nods, sketched a very powerful, very out of place demon.

He couldn't help but wonder what a dog demon was doing so far from its clan. When he asked if she had been looking for Inuyasha, Shippo explained that she was looking, but not for their friend specifically. That just raised the monk's suspicions. What could drive any demon to enter a human village in search of aid? Was she still in the area, looking?

"I wish I could have met this demon," Miroku murmured, "if only to know what she looked like."

"Oh!" Shippo suddenly jumped up and went over to a small chest in the corner of the hut. "I drew a picture!"

When he returned to the fireside, he passed over a piece of parchment. The portrait was surprisingly realistic. The young demoness was small, but long-legged, with lightly curling hair that pooled on the roof on which she sat, cross-legged. Two animalistic ears, large and distinctly canine, sat erect atop her head. The artist placed a lot of care and attention on each claw that tipped her fingers and her wide smile revealed fangs. The eyes were most striking, though this could have been because they were the only part of the drawing that was colored. They were happy and intensely green.

"I've not seen this before." Kaede had moved to put away their empty bowls and now leaned over Miroku's shoulder for a closer look. "It is a fine likeness." Squinting, the old woman leaned forward a little more. "Though, perhaps you made her face more narrow."

"I was just about to say." Miroku lifted his brows and looked slyly over the paper at Shippo. "She looks more like a fox than a dog."

"W-what?" Shippo snatched the paper back and looked at it for a moment before blushing. "Maybe she does. I didn't mean to make her look different."

The monk hummed. "Perchance it was just wishful thinking."

"What's that supposed to mean!?"

"Only that your heart might be coloring your memories."

"What!?"

"I'm just saying that she might be a bit too old for you."

Shippo sputtered helplessly, trying to explain. Fuko was just his friend!

"Don't tease the boy so," Kaede said. "If he gets anymore tongue-tied, he might choke."

Shippo glared and huffily went to put his picture away.

Miroku leaned toward Kaede and asked, "Do you think Shippo's demoness will return?"

"She said she would. Shippo is to send for her when Inuyasha returns."

The monk hummed, again thinking of his misgivings and the worries he had as a new father and the inexperienced leader of a rag-tag band of demon exterminators. He sighed. "A lot seems to hinge on Inuyasha's return."

Kaede nodded sagely. "Let us hope it is a happy occasion."

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"Hey," Fuko stopped and waited until the demon lord stopped and turned toward her. "I have something to say to you."

Sesshomaru turned away. "Not here."

"What?"

Sesshomaru leapt into the darkness of the night, aware that the female demoness would be at his heels, intent on stopping him. He would not let her succeed.

"Wait!" Almost as if he were not running at all, she kept pace beside him, shouting to be heard over the winds of their passage. "Let me finish!"

He glanced at her and found that she was looking at him, not ahead. Her ears were pinned back, dark hair flying, and her clothes plastered to her front. He thought of the creek, and then of the rocks, and after no more than a second of consideration, he varied his course slightly, moving to run between two closely set trees. She evaded by splitting off, not even noticing his deliberate positioning.

"Just let me speak! Lord Sesshomaru!"

He turned sharply, rebounding off a cliff face, and for a second she fell behind, but then she was beside him again.

"Would you stop?! Where are you going!?"

When she tried to push him off his stride, he shrugged her off. When she tried to grab his arm, he dragged her along. The more she tried to slow him, the more frustrated she became, until she began cursing at him. Sesshomaru kept his eyes on the path ahead, working to suppress a smile.

At a certain point in his youth, the young prince of the western lands had surpassed the strongest of his father's men. When he discovered the soldiers of the House of the Moon could no longer keep up with his fullest speed, he began to resent them. To punctuate his decision to travel alone, he purposefully ran the others into the ground on the night of a clan wide moon hunt, proving that they were so inferior that they were unneeded and worse, a burden. Now, with his feet planting solidly in damp earth, his legs pumping smoothly, and his hair blown back like a silver stream, the demon lord experienced the same sense of superiority he felt during that decisive adolescent run. Fuko of the North could out run him, but stopping him with anything short of deadly force was another matter entirely. Watching her struggle to do so almost made him laugh.

"Stop, dammit!"

He did, transiently, and then he darted toward the north, through a corpse of tall pines. She had shot passed and returned to his elbow just as he burst through the other side, into a sparse stretch of land that still reeked of a month's old forest fire.

"I'm trying to tell you something! This is important!"

Sesshomaru stretched his limbs, running flat out, ignoring her every attempt to hinder him. Beyond the blackened forest, which stretched out for miles, a low flourishing shrub land appeared like a flash of light, only to be superseded by jagged, mountainous cliffs. Just as he was again changing direction to throw her off, she recklessly darted into his path. She was trampled, as would be anyone foolish enough to throw themselves under his feet. Her curses followed behind them as they continued to run. Upon reaching a shallow lake, he again tested her agility by turning at the last instant to skirt the edge of the water, and then turning just as quickly to run across the surface. There was a splash, and then a snarl, but she appeared at his elbow again as he reached the opposite shore.

She continued to demand that he stop as he led her along the curving path of a creek, up a sheer cliff-face, down the other side, and then up through the tree tops of yet another pine grove. She cursed, growled, and winged pinecones at his back, but he gloated silently for he knew what was ahead. The thick canopy concealed another cliff, and when he took the final leap off the last branch before it, youki was already condensing under his feet. He burst into starlight and velvet sky, buoyant and triumphant.

She, who had only been a fraction of a second behind, yelped like a pup as her feet pedaled uselessly in the air. Then, she disappeared.

In the time between perceivable moments, just before this disappearance, Fuko stepped on a shard of white light. Really, it only appeared that way. The angle from which Sesshomaru observed her had him in line with sliver of moon, putting her in his shadow. Her relative darkness compared to the air around her highlighted the small burst of energy that was released under her foot when she bought it down with such speed and strength that it knocked lightening out of the air. The resulting force changed her trajectory drastically.

Sesshomaru turned his head to follow the movement that he could only extrapolate from this subconsciously perceived flash of lightening. As it had many times before, his subconscious served him well. He saw her a half mile in the distance, falling into the canopy of the forest below.

He hovered for a moment, reluctantly impressed, before drifting in that direction. She held back in certain ways when she fought him, he realized. It did not change anything. He had suspected she was holding back. He still held back as well. This did bring to his mind another reason to fulfill to the utmost his current plans. Once she was under his power, she would impart her knowledge of speed training to the soldiers of the west. He looked forward to having armies that might move as she did.

As Sesshomaru felt for her, lightly probing the forest for her aura, the danger of letting her out of his sight occurred to him. There were downsides to having a military asset that could so easily become lost. He assumed that she would not have the presence of mind to stay where she landed. If she moved to look for him in the wrong direction, it might be hours or even days before he could find her. When he reached the half-mile mark without sensing her, he had to suppress a frustrated growl. The first thing he invested in would be some way to leash her.

He glided down below the tree tops, taking in the details of his surroundings with all his senses. Her scent was on the breeze, and as he began to inspect the ground for her tracks, a sudden eruption of power washed the area.

A bolt of youki flashed by him, exploding on the ground directly in his path.

He tensed and turned to see her standing in the shade of a low fern. Her face was hard and her eyes were sharp as she regarded him. Her hand gripped the shaft of her spear so fiercely that the white of her tendons showed through the skin.

"Okay." Her grip shifted on the weapon. "You've dragged me all the way out here so I can't find my way back. What are you planning to do?"

Sesshomaru smirked as he stepped forward, letting his hand slide from the pommel of his sword. "You've figured it out, have you?"

"I admit it took me longer than it should have, but I thought we were passed all this deception."

"Passed deception? Then you deny clandestinely weaving spells around the Staff of Two Heads."

"If you're referring to the _one_ magic mark, it helps keep me with the group. I didn't think it was worth mentioning."

"A lie of omission is a lie."

"Whatever! I wouldn't call it deception, but since you're apparently hyper sensitive about such things, I'll give you that." His eyes narrowed slightly and she continued, "To reiterate, you've lured me out here. Now what?"

"Now you tell me what I want to know."

"Is that what this is all about?" She sneered. "I wouldn't answer all your stupid questions so you concocted this convoluted scheme to—what? Make it so I can't leave until you're satisfied?"

Sesshomaru didn't appreciate her tone. She was giving him an aggravated look, as if he had interrupted her day with trivial concerns, but her attempt to shame him into backing down was useless. He had removed her avenues of escape and the dynamic between them was now vitally changed. "If you wish to continue on from here, that is exactly what you have to do."

Her eyes narrowed. "You swore on your honor—"

"That I would deliver you to the West at my earliest convince." He stepped forward. "I find bringing unknown factions to the seat of my house to be rather inconvenient."

"That wasn't the deal."

"It is now." He stepped forward again. "Why such reticence?"

"I've told you before. I've got nothing to hide."

"I'll be the judge of that."

"And I've said before that I'll answer your questions as soon as you start answering mine."

"I hardly think you're in a position to make that demand."

She glared for a long moment. "So, there will be no compromise?"

He snorted. "This one does not 'compromise'."

She bowed her head and her long bangs fell forward to shadow her eyes. Her power began to swell, rustling the branches of the trees overhead. There were undertones of a growl in her voice as she said, "I thought that's what you'd say."

Sesshomaru shifted into a more battle ready stance, smiling softly.

Fuko glanced up, revealing green eyes sparkling with intensity. "You know, I thought we could be friends, even before I promised Rin. But I could never be friends with a stuck-up frost golem like you." She drove her spear into the ground at her side. "That's what I came out here to tell you."

Sesshomaru tensed as her power rose around him and carefully modulated his own natural response. He could feel her anger rippling along his skin, but he would not give in to it. When she attacked him, he needed to keep his focus on subduing her without undue bloodshed.

"Friendship is beyond us," she continued. In one movement, she flung off her obi and outer kimono. "I came out here to declare our rivalry!"

Around him the air suddenly burned and crackled with her power, setting the fur of his mokomoko in end. Almost against his will, his youki flexed and swelled, rising to protect him. His teeth began to ache, and he knew his beast was rising as well. "What is the meaning of this?"

"As your eternal rival, I vow to make you acknowledge my parity, and to that end, I challenge you to a match." She fell smoothly into the Ii-Kitsune beginning stance. "Prepare yourself. What came before was child's play."

Sesshomaru smirked and began removing his armor. This was not the outright attack he'd been expecting, but this would come out in his favor just as well. As he dropped his swords, he said, "So be it."

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Jaken sat next to the campfire, surrounded by crumpled herbs, torn spell tags, and ashes from burnt charms. After surveying the waste of his centuries of knowledge, he glanced worriedly up at the moon. It was not yet directly overhead, but it would be soon and he still sat with the Staff of Two Heads lying across his knees, no closer to completing his mission. He had honestly thought it would be simple when Lord Sesshomaru gave him this important task. He was a spell master, after all. It was such a little, innocuous mark left by such a laughable demoness. How was he to know that every trick he knew would fail to remove it? Short of destroying the staff, he was running out of options. As the sliver of moon inched closer and closer to the zenith of its nightly course, he wanted to throw up his hands and cry.

Instead, the kappa youkai bit back tears and again bowed his head over the staff focusing on the odd kanji-like symbol etched into the wood. There had to be some trick, some simple thing he was missing. There was no way that stupid girl had permanently marked such a fine weapon.

As he sat in intense contemplation, he could feel his time slipping away like sand pouring through a sieve. Finally, he gave a furious shout. "She won't get the best of me!" Jaken pushed the staff to the ground and jumped to his feet. "I'll use my most powerful spell!"

He whipped a fine-pointed brush and a small ink stone from the pockets in his robes and quickly ground some ink. Then he took out his ultimate charm, an ornate black and gold silk scroll he kept in his breast pocket. The back was inlaid with a profusion of power symbols, but the inside was blank. It was precious, a piece that took decades to craft from demon worm silk and the husks of shed dragon skins. He'd only ever seen the one. Jaken focus his youki, clamping his beak and clenching his fist around the brush. His bulbous yellow eyes began to glow.

Behind him, Ah-Un stirred and lifted his heads. He would have stood if Rin weren't resting against his belly. It was unnerving for the beast to see Jaken summoning any of his natural power. It happened so rarely.

In three bold strokes, Jaken wrote 'cleanse' on the small scroll. There was a hum of power and the kanji glowed briefly before the spell settled.

"I did it!" He took up his staff again. "Alright. I've given it everything I've got. This has to work." Dramatically, he held the open scroll above his head. "I will not let my lord down!"

The imp forcefully slapped his spell on the homing mark. As soon as the silk scroll made contact with the staff, the two faces, the Old Man and the Beauty, opened their mouths and shrieked. Jaken screamed as well, jumping back. The shrieking staff remained upright, suspended by a web of crackling demon energy.

Behind him, Ah-Un let out a garbled wail and Rin woke up, only to scream as well at the hair-raising sight.

After a few loud seconds, the cracking energy around the staff abated and it clattered quietly to the ground.

The three (four) remaining screams trailed off. Hesitantly, Jaken sidled up to the inert staff and nudged it with his foot. What remained of the scroll promptly disintegrated, leaving behind bare, unblemished wood.

Jaken gave a short, sharp laugh, looked up at the moon, and laughed again. He then began to laugh hysterically with relief, and then lapsed into weeping, thinking of all he would have to do to replace that scroll.

Rin clutched Ah-Un's side, watching her care-taker cry. "Ah-Un? Did Master Jaken break his staff?"

The dragon beast grunted and Jaken cried harder.

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The raging battle between the two inu youkai came to a grinding halt when Sesshomaru managed to reverse an arm lock and sweep Fuko off her feet, only to land atop her when she brought her legs around and buckled his knees. This was a mistake on her part.

All at once, the Western lord seemed to constrict around her like a boa, and she found herself playing the part of the helpless mouse. Sesshomaru was well trained in grappling. It was taught by rote to pups in the House of the Moon before they could even stand, and though it was decidedly undignified, he would use whatever advantage. Fuko knew very little about full body grappling as a martial art and had never progressed beyond gentle, friendly tussling with much weaker playmates. She had to resist using her claws and teeth to break away.

She twisted in his grip twisted violently enough to drive them both up to their knees, her back pressed against his chest, one of his arms locked around her throat. The other kept her arms pined to her sides and his legs were positioned exactly to keep her from moving hers at all. She continued to twist and wrench her body, almost breaking away a few times, but he slowly pressed her to the ground again as her strength waned. They had been after each other for hours, pounding away. They were both spotted with bruises, panting with fatigue, and burning with pent up youki.

If she thought being surrounded by his aura was like a smothering blanket, then being _actually _smothered by his physical body was simply some fresh hell. His warm breath saturated her hair and he was sweaty. They were both sweaty, but having him pressed to her point for point felt like being dosed in melted wax. It was sweltering, a hot, moist trap, and he was _heavy_, like, _impossibly_ heavy. She could lift tons, toss trolls around like rag dolls, but she couldn't seem to move with this guy on her back.

She did not notice that all her writhing was pushing her kosode further and further up her legs, but Sesshomaru could not help but notice and so his cock began to swell. The warmth of her body grew more intense as less fabric came between them and she ground her soft rump into his crotch continuously as he fought to keep her underneath him. His confining arms were wrapped around her, revealing to his touch the contours of her body that his eyes had discovered just hours ago. Her limbs trembled with strained as she fought against him and he had to flex mightily to battle her strength, but it was this tender quaking that was making it difficult to focus on holding her. She nearly escaped more than once because of his distraction, but at the last second he would shift to correct his opening. He had to fight her and his own growing arousal.

Even running out of air, Fuko continued to struggle for a long while. It was futile, however. Her every wiggle was followed closely by his countering movement and the sensations this provided only motivated Sesshomaru to tighten his hold. He managed to shift his grip well enough to move one hand onto her belly, which he caressed lightly. Her struggle didn't abate, and he curled his fingers into her side, kneading, determined that she would realize the benefits of surrender. His hand was inching upward when, finally, her movement trailed off into the faintest squirming. He hesitated and then eased off of her throat.

"Submit," he ordered, and the word came out hard and raspy.

She coughed. "No."

Displeased, Sesshomaru growled low in her ear and Fuko snarled back more ferociously. Bitch! Oddly enough, her audacious behavior served to arouse him further and he rolled his hips forward reflexively, grinding on her.

He stopped immediately, though not because he regretted it. The demon lord was not one to deny himself something that he wanted. Fucking her had always been a vague consideration in the back of his mind and he wanted her fiercely enough to forgive her many quirks long enough to satisfy, but he would not force himself on her. His scent, thick with lust, was not quite strong enough to mask the fact that no such scent was coming from her.

She began to struggle again, growling, "Why are you so heavy?"

Now doubly displeased, he leaned forward and bit her ear.

"Ow, OW! What the hell?! That's cheating! Let go! OW! I concede! Uncle! Get the hell off me!"

He loosened his grip on her reluctantly, but did not unclench his jaw, though he was surprised at himself. It was hardly the most dignified way to cow her, but it was apparently super effective. He shifted into a sitting position and she was dragged half into his lap. She whined, gingerly pulling away from him, but not getting far with her ear still crumpled in his mouth.

"Let go let go let go let go!"

He gripped her waist and pulled her against him until she sat between his legs. Only then did he let go of her ear.

Fuko of the North leapt from him, landing some five feet away and crouching there. Sesshomaru didn't fight to keep her where he put her, deciding instead to allow them both a moment to collect themselves. He could admit that he was a bit tired, and a bit… agitated. His arms, legs, and loins still pulsed with kinetic heat. Slowly, he picked sweat soaked clothe away from the skin of his stomach, curling his lip in distaste. He loosed just enough of his power to burn away the dirt and dry his clothes, and so became aware of various aches and pains that would heal within the next hour. A hot bath would have been preferable to this quick method of cleaning himself.

Across from him, a ball of fox fire appeared at Fuko's feet and began to travel upwards, cleansing her. He watched, frowning. Her head was bowed, the crown exposed to him with her soft ears laid back. The whorl in her hair went subtly clockwise. Her posture was defensive, curled in shoulders, arms tucked around her knees which were pressed to her chest, but it could also be read as submissive, though she had avoided saying the words before.

Just as he began to ease closer, she looked up. "I owe you a penalty. One favor."

He leaned back slightly, working decipher this sudden statement.

She looked away sharply and clicked her tongue. "Though biting is _cheating, _I wasn't getting out of that hold. To lose immediately after declaring rivalry, it's shameful. I'm… surprised. I'm not where I thought I was as a fighter. I will focus and learn from this defeat." She met his eyes again, glaring. "Don't underestimate me."

No, that posture wasn't submissive at all. "Hn."

She seemed to deflate and her ears drooped further. "Well, what do you want?"

Eyes on her downcast head, he brushed the back of his hand over his lips. "What will you give me?"

She glanced up at him warily. "It's a penalty, not a debt. Be reasonable."

He curled his lip, not appreciating her tone. Sesshomaru had very little experience with rejection, but he knew enough to see it looming. He weighed his options and settled on satisfying his original goals, confident that he could seduce her at another, less tense time. "You will tell me what you are after and why you are after it."

"Really? That's what you want?" She sighed and unfurled herself. "You've got no imagination."

He glared silently, waiting for her to comply. Instead, she began undoing the clasps on her boots. He refrained from asking why, only watched with mounting interest as she unfastened one manner of clasp only to reveal another, buckles and then buttons, and then interlocking metal teeth under that. Finally, she untied two sets of laces and pulled her shoes off one after another.

Her feet were streaked with demon marks, the same blue that colored her cheeks. When she was naked before him, he had absently noticed that she had no marks on the rest of her body, and the multitude here explained it. The sight was unnerving.

He had been taught by his tutors that the marks daiyoukai possessed were both indicators of power and points of channeling, and that they were gradually dispersed throughout the body to balance the four humors of the soul. It was a natural coloration that emerged as one came of age. Though the hands and head were most used to channel, too much youki moving through any one part of the body would damage one irreparably. There were only a few processes that could alter the appearance or locations of the marks, all of them being extremely complex and dangerous. To have so many in one place… Was it a consequence of some spell that enhanced her speed? Was this then a factor in the strange formation of her aura?

"What have you done to yourself?"

Fuko glanced up, blinking at his stern tone. "What do you mean?"

Her surprise seemed genuine, her scent held no hint of dishonesty. He stared for a moment, silent, and then his eyes widened slightly. "Your demon marks are naturally occurring."

She laid her hands over the tops of her feet, feeling self-conscious. "Aren't yours?"

"Yes." He snorted and gestured, disconcerted but unwilling to admit it. "Continue with your display."

"Wait, your marks showed up as you got older, right? Mine started when—"

"Get on with it."

She glowered for a few seconds before folding her legs into a lotus position, revealing the pink soles of her feet. "This is what I was trying to show you, you jerk."

As she brushed her finger tips over one sole and then the other, black marks appeared as if drawn up from under the skin. They were strings of minutely written kanji, crisscrossing, radiating outward from certain points like spider webs.

If he hadn't just decided her demon marks were natural, he would have assumed this was the perverse spell had altered them so radically. The longer he stared at the bottom of her feet, the more it appeared the kanji were moving, crawling in slow procession down the lines. He nodded grimly and looked at her, expecting her to be watching his reaction, but he found that she was focused elsewhere.

Fuko had crossed her arms and gazed down at her feet in contemplation, eyes tracing each character with meticulous care. "It's a curse meant to immobilize. Forever. I put it on myself. " She looked up from under her eyelashes then. "It doesn't work as intended on me, obviously. I have to repair it every so often, because my body fights it." She lifted one hand and rested her chin on the heel of it, looking again at her feet. "I discovered this curse over a century ago. I've been tinkering with it for years, but I just don't think it's enough. It's the best thing I've found so far to keep me in one place, but it doesn't work perfectly and it doesn't work all the time. Even now, I could go hunting and wind up on the next continent. That's why I need the homing mark on Jaken's staff." She tapped her lips. "You're probably wondering how I get lost so easily, but I can't tell you; I don't know. Ever since I could take a human shape, I've been wandering off. My sense of direction… I can't even read a map accurately. Compasses lie to me. With the help of others, I've learned that it has to have something to do with my youki. It must be something I'm doing unconsciously. That's the reason I've been looking for other dog demons. They must have methods for controlling this. " Her eyes drifted up to him with the same look of quiet contemplation. "You seem very different from me. I think we must be different breeds of dog. It's disappointing, but I still need to investigate the Western Lands. Someone might have heard of my people; there could be records. I don't know what I'm looking for specifically. Just… answers."

They stared at each other for a long moment.

"Is that good enough?" she asked.

Sesshomaru tried to imagine the reality of her situation. Away from the guidance of her parents, learning by trial and error, taking up with whomever or whatever could teach her more. Constant involuntary wandering. In was obvious to him now why her methods and attitudes were so jumbled, but the results were undeniable. In few years than his, she had overcome all these disadvantages and reached a power comparable to his. Her dam and sire must have been powerful. It was a wonder that he recognized nothing about her, but no matter her true affiliations, whether they were some lost dog clan or some little-known tribe on the continent, he would have her.

Fuko stared, waiting for some reaction from him, and so saw the exact moment his mentality shifted. She drew back unconsciously and the hairs on the back of her neck lifted. _Why is he looking at me like that all of a sudden? _

Sesshomaru noticed this minute withdrawal and his mind immediately shifted to solving this new problem. She would be a great asset, but also an unreliable force until her wanderlust was controlled. He needed some way to tie her to him. A leash, perhaps.

Fuko's danger sense tingled warningly at the sight of his small smile. She leapt back five more feet in an instant. "Hey, listen, you! I don't know what you're thinking, but I'll have none of it!" He continued to look at her with that eerie intensity. She growled. "I may have lost this time but the deal still stands. You swore on your honor, or have you forgotten?"

The amusement gone as quickly as it had struck and he glared at her for a moment before standing and moving toward his armaments. With his leash, he would also need a muzzle.

Fuko remained tensed for a few moments and then slowly relaxed her guard, a little surprised at herself. Why had she been so sure he was going to leap at her? Well, whatever the reason, she was sure the inu was planning something.

It didn't matter. Now that he knew how hopeless she was at wrestling, he would definitely try for it next time, but no way, _no way_ would she let him beat her again. At least, not that way. Being held down like that, it was just… intolerable! Something violent and animalistic in her wanted to bite him, to draw blood for trapping her, but she squashed it. This guy really got under her skin, but letting her anger get the best of her is what lead her to this moment.

As she turned and went over to her clothes, which were hung on the point of her weapon, Fuko began to strategize. _Just you wait, jerk-face. I'll show you._

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"Jaken."

The imp grinned, jumped to his feet, and ran over to his lord, who had appeared on the edge of the camp with that female trailing behind him. Jaken smirked at her as he spoke. "Lord Sesshomaru. I have carried out your orders."

The stupid female blinked slowly at him, probably furious that he had defeated her little spell.

Sesshomaru held out his hand and Jaken handed over his staff immediately, knowing there was no lasting damage from his ultimate scroll. He'd spent all morning making sure it was in good working order. He gloated silently as his lord inspected his weapon.

"Hn." Sesshomaru turned slightly, passed the staff to Fuko, and walked away.

She looked after him for a long moment, not sure how to take this gesture. He wanted her to put the homing mark back. Was he being nice? No, she decided. It just in his best interest to make sure she didn't get lost. Huffing quietly, she ran her thumb over the wood of the staff, leaving behind the same symbol as before.

"Hey, Sesshomaru." When he glanced back at her, she bared her teeth at him. "I'm not going to lose tomorrow. Get ready!"

With that, she tossed the staff back at the dumbfounded kappa and walked over to the still sleeping Rin. Sesshomaru's heated gaze followed her all the way.

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**Next, the exciting conclusion! (not really.)**

**Chapter IX: Sesshomaru, Too Hot To Handle! **


	9. Sesshomaru, Too Hot To Handle!

**Hello! **

**Okay, here's another chapter. T-T I'll do better with scheduling, I promise! There's just so much school going on! Anyway, I've been contacted and there should be some fan art of this story floating around someday soon. Cool, huh? And so without further ado, mega chapter, AWAKEN! (Should I have cut this in half or some such?)**

**Also, I don't own Inuyasha. You knew that.**

Miko- priestess. Hanyou- half-demon. Inu- dog. Ookami- wolf. Neko- cat. Ryu- dragon. Kitsune- fox. Youkai- demon. Youki- demon aura/energy. Daiyoukai- great demon. Moko moko- Sesshomaru's fluffy fluffy tail. Kappa- toad. Dokkaso- Sesshomaru's poison. Hime- princess. Kami- gods. Oni- ogre/troll demons. Hentai- pervert

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**Chapter IX: Sesshomaru, Too Hot To Handle!**

In the grey light of early dawn, just before the sun was to peer over the horizon and bring a new day to the land of the rising sun, a lithe, fleet-footed figure lifted his head to scent the air. From his perch in a deep-rooted sugi tree on the edge of a cliff, his view stretched for miles over the land to the east. The forest at his back was quiet, giving only the ambient rustle and hum of everyday activity. Not even the tree spirits were aware of his presence.

Over twenty miles away, vibrant flashes of youki held his attention. His eyes glowed in the half light, reflecting power on their crystalline surfaces. To these eyes, in this state, the world was composed of closely set nodes of light on a backdrop of dimness and the two founts of demon energy in the distance were easy to see.

Sanjuro, the white-haired dog demon, had been a scout for the House of the Moon for nearly five hundred years. He had much the same appearance of all the Moon dogs, though he was not as polished as the members of the ruling line. He wore his hair short, his clothes tight and without flashy adornment, and he kept his keen yellow eyes open. His life in the field, stalking the shadows of the Western Lands and beyond, was reflected in his slinking, watchful manner. He preferred the title of the Western Lady's First Scout to the moniker of the Lady's Pocket Spy, but in the shadows of the Western castle, he would answer to either.

For all this questionable prestige, Sanjuro was of middling rank among the inu youkai of the Western Lands. Though he held an excellent humanoid form with no bestial appendages lingering, he had no demon marks to speak of. His pedigree goes as follows: his father had served the House as a field scout of little distinction and begat him via a favored handmaid of the Western Lady. His father's father had much the same luck. His father's father's father had served as a foot soldier who managed to mate the eighteenth daughter of a lesser noble. His father's father's father's father, for whom he was named, had been a pack-less drifter who was talented and ballsy enough to steal into the Western holding, past sentries and a garrison full of highly trained soldiers, and capture himself the Captain of the Guard's second daughter for a mate—a millennia-old scandal written into the history of the House and retold by common dogs during fertility festivals. This was the level of stealth and cunning to which Sanjuro aspired. He had little interest in raising his station through mating; it was the pure skill of his predecessor that he chased.

Sanjuro had not reached this level yet, by his own unhappy estimation. Though he was valued highly by his superiors and admired by his peers, he knew his limitations. This was partly why he completed every mission set out before him so proficiently. He was a demon with a very fine understanding of what he could and could not do.

For instance, he knew that he could find his young lord and master, Sesshomaru—given enough time.

Weeks ago, he had been tasked by the Lady of the West with delivering a summons to her son, but it is known that Lord Sesshomaru comes and goes like an earthquake—there was no predicting where he would be and catching up after he had gone did little good. Sanjuro was of the opinion that his elusiveness was meant for his mother, but it served to frustrate him personally. This unpredictability combined with his dragging that mutant dragon around after him made tracking a nightmare. The inu youkai scout snorted. You'd think such an odorous group as one including a kappa and a human would leave a lasting impression, but the dragon's scent degraded over time with the harshness of lye, taking all other scents with it.

Now that he had finally found him, Sanjuro hesitated to fulfill his original instructions. His back to the pre-dawn light, he watched as the elusive Lord of the West tussled in the distance with… something. He could not see the physicality of the thing, but he could see the demon lord's aura, as potent and daunting as ever, flaring again and again in the rhythm of battle and the aura close by matched him, beat for beat. It was unfamiliar—less vibrant, wispier. Off, somehow. Again, he lifted his head to scent it—her. So far and away downwind as he was, only the faintest trace could be detected, but he was fairly certain it was the young bitch he'd caught whiffs of in and around the cold, nearly scentless camps the group left behind. She had such a unique scent.

When he first realized the fifth scent trailed in his lord's wake, he had thought, _what little fool has come this way to die?_ Some empty-headed, misinformed female from another clan that was stepping above her station, he'd assumed. Lord Sesshomaru allowed no one to approach his human pet, not even youkai loyal to his house. Interlopers outside of his rule rarely saw the child and lived. Sanjuro himself was the one to circulate the news that anyone wishing to speak to the lord must wait at a respectful distance lest they risk their necks. Now though, the sight of the stranger's aura left him wondering who exactly had weaseled her way into the Western Lord's immediate circle.

Someone interesting, no doubt. The battle he observed had been going on for far too long, since before he had arrived. This puzzled Sanjuro. A demoness of such average strength should not be able to hold his lord's interest for so long. He would have thought that he was toying with the young bitch, but the youki in the distance did not falter. Was it possible that his lord was testing her? To what end? Was she stronger than she seemed? There was something deceptive about the formation of this one's aura. If he could get close enough to catch a glimpse, it might tell him more—possibly from which clan she came.

Curiosity itched at him. What delicious implication this tale would have among the pure-bred nobles back at the holding. Sanjuro didn't care for gossip himself, but the reward for such information from the young females of the West and the jockeying parents of those females would be lavish. And after one got hold of the information, he would let slip a word here and an insinuation there, rumors would abound and create even more opportunities to solicit bribes and favors. But, to see those high and mighty nobles scrabbling after scrapes would be his most precious reward. Their type, the "great demons" who sat for millennia behind castle walls while feeding their own importance, fell all over themselves to hear news of the truly powerful—the likes of which Lord Sesshomaru stood at the top.

Still, he had to keep his distance. Any closer and he risked alerting the lord to his presence.

At this moment, as the inu youkai scout spectated remotely on this momentous sparring match between Fuko and Sesshomaru and dreamed of the amusement he would gain by spreading word of her existence to the four corners of the West, Sesshomaru reversed Fuko's arm lock and swept her feet out from under her. Sanjuro's focus wavered slightly as the two daiyoukai in the distance fell into tussling. Nobles. The very term made no sense to him. Which among them were honorable, candid, loyal? Which among them had any true power? While he was well aware that their underhanded machinations could kill as surely as a blade, his own skill, as paltry as it was compared to his great-great-grandfather's, kept him from falling to assassination or fatal subterfuge. It was said among the common dogs that the nobles living in the inner court yards were so tied up in posturing and niceties that they might as well be human. From what he had seen, they were worst—less distractible, more likely to remember a slight, and long lived enough to be fatally opportunistic. The sheer pettiness was appalling to the scout. Appalling, but delightfully easy to manipulate.

A subtle shift in the energies of the tussling daiyoukai drew the scout's luminous gaze. To explain the difference in the terms of hearing, the tone and quality of the battle had changed from high-octane clashes to magmatic rumbling, slow and swelling in nature. To explain in terms of touch, the battle shifted from the solid harshness of slate to a smooth, rich fluid, as thick and mysterious as blood. What Sanjuro _saw_, however, was naked and hot—raw like an exposed nerve and bright enough to burn his eyes. It was Lord Sesshomaru. His nearly overwhelmed the second aura.

Sanjuro had seen many things during his time in this world, had many lovers and done a few things with them that he wouldn't want spread around the barracks, but seeing evidence of his lord's arousal half got him to blush.

On this topic, rumor swung both ways. Certain fair-featured young noblemen and a few of their gruff fathers thought the Western Lord might favor the company of men over women. Sanjuro himself thought this was just wishful thinking or the baseless supposition of those judging only by looks. The soldiers of the garrison were of the opinion that their lord was asexual, moving through life like a force of nature without the needs and concerns that the likes of themselves dealt with. Women, young and old, rich and poor, were somehow convinced that the young lord was a sexual powder keg waiting for a dark corner and a lucky woman to explode on. Sanjuro had been skeptical. Many _claimed_ to have been favored by their lord, but none of the claims had ever come to anything. Not even his lord's scent lingered on the females most likely to be speaking the truth. It had been the dog scout's personal opinion that his young lord and master was some sort of sexual phantom, dallying so discretely that not even his lovers could prove he had been there. (And being _phantasmal_, what did that really say of your prowess?)

So he paid close attention, despite his burning eyes, when the youki in the distance changed color and shape, coming as close to the passionate roiling of sex as one could get without committing the act—right before suddenly diming to his lord's usual lumen level.

Sanjuro felt a moment of disappointment and then scoffed at himself. When had he become a voyager? He sat up straighter and gave his cheeks a couple of rousing slaps. It wasn't as if he'd never seen lust before, or experienced it himself. Why did it arrest him so? Perhaps it was because witnessing the famously cold Western Lord (sometimes called the ice prince) burn up like a bonfire was like turning around and finding the kami fucking around in the dirt.

Or, something not quite so improbable.

Sanjuro shook his head. He mustn't give in to the hype and the rumor. Every time, on every occasion, the word on the street deviated just so from the truth. The legends about the Lord of the West were just that: legends. The fact was that Lord Sesshomaru was a demon, just like him, just like any other. Untouchably strong, but just as susceptible to hungers of the flesh.

But, still, wasn't it interesting? He looked again to the two auras in the distance as they settled, close but not improperly so. They were conversing, he guessed, and wanted very much to know what they were saying. Who _was _this strange female who could light up the ice prince like a new star?

The dog scout weighted his options. Curiosity bade him to watch for a while longer, but he worried about being caught. Lord Sesshomaru was not one to be trifled with. In fact, he was a rather cruel one and Sanjuro knew this from his own experience.

Still, in the words of his late great forefather, what was never ventured was never gained.

"Just a demon," Sanjuro muttered to himself. He pushed away his misgivings and his yellow eyes glowed with renewed vigor as he settled in to watch. "I'll be safe enough if I keep my distance. It's not as if he's omnipotent."

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Rin clung to Fuko's back, blinking sleepily, but the wind whipping at her face over the demoness' shoulder stirred her to full wakefulness soon enough.

"Fuko-chan? What…?"

The demoness shouted over the wind, "Breakfast!"

"What? But…" Rin clung tighter to her friend, confused. Just a few second ago, she'd been snuggled in furs, fast asleep. She hadn't even said good morning to Lord Sesshomaru or Master Jaken or Ah-Un yet.

For a long while, the pair moved hurriedly through the forest. As Rin became more and more wakeful, she spotted several berry bushes and patches of mushrooms or field greens. She tried asking the demoness why they weren't stopping, where they were going, but she didn't answer. The little girl was used to having her questions go unanswered, but never by Fuko-chan before. Something must be wrong.

Rin started humming softly and buried her face in Fuko's hair to hide from the wind. Had something happened between her friend and Lord Sesshomaru? She vaguely remembered Fuko pulling her out of her bundle of furs and slinging her onto her back. Just before they took off into the woods, she glimpsed the others. Master Jaken had been slack-jawed, staring at nothing with his eyes bugging all the way out. Rin couldn't remember ever seeing the imp in such a state. Ah-Un had been standing with his four legs spread wide apart, like he just jumped up from his sleep. Ah had been looking at her with big eyes, neck stretched in her direction. Un had been looking the other way, neck out stretched toward Lord Sesshomaru. From her split second's sight of Lord Sesshomaru, she remembered that the daiyoukai had looked… angry. He had been glaring at Fuko-chan, mouth slightly open like he was about to say something, but they had been gone too quickly for her to hear it.

Rin thought of scolding her friend for that—one should always stop to listen to Lord Sesshomaru— but the wind was just too strong and loud. She was getting carried passed all these trees and bushes, Fuko-chan couldn't hear her, and now she needed to pee. Rin sighed heavily, her breath warming Fuko silky hair. What had gone so wrong?

Eventually, Rin felt them slow down and by the time she looked up, they had stopped. Fuko crouched quickly and Rin slid off her back like water off a duck, landing on her bottom with a little "whooph!"

"Rin-chan? Are you okay?"

The little girl squirmed uncomfortably. "I need to pee!"

"Oh!" The demoness leaned away and immediately pointed into the trees. "Go, go, go!

Moments later, after that was taken care of, the two girls reconvened on the same spot.

"Fuko-chan, why'd we leave everybody behind so suddenly? I was still asleep!"

She let out a long sigh and turned away, looking annoyed. Rin worried that she had done something wrong.

"I needed to talk to you, Rin-chan. What we talked about before, about Sesshomaru and I…" Fuko blew a rough breath out of her nose and Rin heard a little bit of a growl. "Let's get some breakfast first."

The demoness turned suddenly and leapt up into the tree they were standing under before Rin could even start to say "Wait!"

She looked up into the branches after Fuko—it was a peach tree. Fuko moved so quickly, flitting from branch to branch, barely disturbing the long, narrow leaves, that Rin could not track her progress. The demoness came down an instant later, arms laden. Her face was pinched: her nose wrinkled slightly, her jaw locked, and her brows drawn low and together. Rin was beginning to feel anxious.

"Here now. Don't these look good to eat?" Fuko plopped down on an exposed root of the tree and picked through the ripe fruit in her arms. She found one with unblemished skin and handed it to Rin. "Sit, sit."

Rin cradled the soft stone fruit in both hands as she eased down. "Fuko-chan? What happened? Is Lord Sesshomaru mad at you?"

"Ah, about that." The demoness brought a large peach to her lips and took a big bite. Juice trickled from the corner of her mouth as she chewed furiously. Within seconds, she held nothing but a pit, which she then tossed away before choosing another fruit.

Confused and concerned, Rin held her fruit a little tighter as she watched Fuko eat. Usually, Fuko didn't eat with Rin. Sometimes she took a bite of something, but she never ate much. Rin had guessed she was just eating to be nice, that she hunted for her food like Lord Sesshomaru did. Watching her devour peach after peach in so little time was a bit unnerving.

Finally, Rin reached out and caught her sleeve. "Fuko-chan, slow down! You'll get sick."

Fuko froze with her fangs locked into the flesh of a peach. All at once, the sweet flavor was repulsive. She realized it the sensation of biting into something that she had craved. _What am I doing? I need to calm down. I need to think._ Slowly, she bit off the chunk that was already in her mouth and swallowed it without chewing.

As her friend slowly tossed the half-eaten fruit into woods, Rin began picking at her own breakfast, pulling the fuzzy skin away so she could take an uninhibited bite of the soft sweetness.

Fuko cleared her throat. "You should eat the skin. It's good for you."

Rin glanced at her and then away, but didn't stop peeling back the skin. "Are you mad at Lord Sesshomaru?"

Fuko opened and closed her mouth twice before saying, "No. I mean, yes. I'm angry at him." But, why? How had last night been any more or less than expected? Yes, she had lost, but she knew that could happen, would happen eventually…

Rin slumped. Something had definitely gone wrong. "But, you said you were going to make friends."

Fuko answered distractedly, "One of the reasons I'm angry at him is because he makes it impossible to be friends."

Rin dropped the fruit into her lap and bunched the fabric of her kosode in her fists. "Fuko-chan, if you're nice to Lord Sesshomaru then—"

"Rin-chan." Fuko waved a hand, trying to push her odd ruminations away and focus on her friend.

Rin bit her lip and waited.

Fuko regarded her seriously after a moment. "You've known Lord Sesshomaru for much longer than I have. Does he have any friends?"

"I… I haven't met any… but that doesn't mean he doesn't have any."

"I know that." Fuko wiped the juice from her chin and crossed her arms, glancing away again. "Not having friends doesn't mean you can't make friends, far from it. But, I think Sesshomaru doesn't have any because—and this is just what I think— he doesn't know how to have them. He doesn't know how to treat an equal." _And that's just what makes this so frustrating_, she thought.

Rin shook her head and cried out, "You can be his friend, Fuko-chan! You can teach him, I know you can! You're so nice, and pretty. You tell the best stories, better than Master Jaken. You spar with him, isn't that fun? If you're just nice to him like you're nice to me, I know he'll want to be your friend too."

Fuko grunted. "It's not a matter of me teaching him. I don't think he would want to change."

Rin could feel her face getting warm and her eyes starting to water. She fought it, knowing that Lord Sesshomaru didn't like it when she cried and that he would be able to smell her tears. "You just have to try harder. Please? If you get Lord Sesshomaru to like you, then he'll let you stay with us forever."

Fuko's ears perked up and she looked back at the girl. The sight of her made the demoness softened immediately. She reached out to touch the top of Rin's head. "Oh, Rin-chan, you think…? Why do you think Sesshomaru lets me travel with you guys now?"

The little girl took a few deep breaths and blinked tearfully up at her. "To take you to the Western Castle?"

"Exactly." She stroked Rin's hair. "We made a deal that he would take me there."

"But, after that…?"

"Who knows what his plans are. Me? I need to stay in the West as long as I can." Fuko removed her hand to rub the back of her own neck. She squinted up at the sky. "This is the first time I've dealt with actual inu youkai. Sesshomaru himself is—difficult, but there has to be someone there who'll help me." _Someone who isn't such a pain!_

Rin sat up and leaned forward, letting her fruit fall on the ground. "Fuko-chan, Lord Sesshomaru is the best!"

Startled, Fuko looked down at her. "What?"

"Lord Sesshomaru is the best! You don't need to go to the castle."

"Ah, Rin-chan—"

"If you need help, he can do it!" The little girl took her sleeve in hand and tugged. "Please?"

"He already said he didn't know anything."

Rin's bottom lip began to tremble. "He'll help you. I know he will."

The two looked at each other for a long moment, Rin desperately trying to impress the essential truth of her statement. Lord Sesshomaru could do anything. If Fuko was looking for something, he could find it. She didn't need to go away somewhere.

Fuko sighed again. "Okay. Okay, Rin-chan, I hear you. Sesshomaru is very… competent. I'm sure he'd be a great ally in my quest. But you know him better than I do. You know he won't help without reason."

"But —but, he's taking you to his castle…"

"The deal we made was only for that. He lost a bet. He's only doing this because he has to. Besides, the question of the hour isn't if he can help me find answers, it's if he can be a friend and I don't think he can." Rin looked about to interrupt, but Fuko stopped her. "Let me finish. I can't be friends with him. I learned that for sure last night. So, in the name of future mutual respect and some measure of admiration, I declared our rivalry." Fuko wrinkled her nose. "And then I lost our first match as such."

Mind all awhirl, Rin threw up her hands. "Rivalry? You lost? What does that even mean?"

"What does it mean?" Fuko stared into the middle distance over Rin's head, remembering figures from her past. Their faces flashed before her eyes, flipping passed like entries on a rolodex. Rivals, all. It almost made her smile. They all had their own specialties, their own little quirks. Each offered his or her own frustrations, and even when the ultimate frustration of time passed and space lost separated her from each of them, she never regretted investing her sweat and blood. It was great fun, knowing a challenge waited every time they met; and, yeah, they got on her nerves or under her skin sometimes. It was the nature of the relationship. In general, Fuko would say that life tasted better when she was pitted against someone.

But this guy, this Sesshomaru… Memories of their interactions flooded in, washing away the many other faces. With him, it was different, she decided. She didn't even know if she could call this fun anymore. In fact, things were feeling pretty serious. And for some reason, the way he defeated her this morning really ticked her off.

Her eyes narrowed as she spoke, trying to remember every detail of their fight. "As rivals, I expect Sesshomaru and I will be forever in contention, pitted against each other in life. The competition will make us stronger as individuals, but there will never be the affection and intimacy of friendship." Something, something was odd about their fight. "That's what I predict, anyway. Some of my best friends started out as rivals, but I just can't see that happening with a guy like Sesshomaru." Her brain itched. She felt as if she were just on the precipice of realizing something. The fight—what had happened? "As for losing, it… well, it sucked. And I don't plan to do it again anytime soon. Rivalries stagnate if one party loses constantly. It becomes a like bad joke." She recalled his inescapable weight and the pressure of his full-body hold and she wrinkled her nose in distaste. Her voice gained an inhuman bass note as she finished, "And losing like that, with his weight on my back… I won't allow it again." A low growl issued from her throat.

Rin's eyes widened. The sound wasn't loud; it was physical. She felt the vibrations in her own chest. Sometimes, it was easier to remember that Fuko was a demon just like her Lord Sesshomaru.

"I won't lose tomorrow, for sure. I'll figure this out and I'll crush him." A strange fiery glint entered her eyes. "I'll make him eat dirt."

"Fuko-chan!"

The demoness cleared her throat, face relaxing into her friendlier visage as her gaze landed on Rin. "Figuratively, of course. Not really. Just, you know, emotionally."

Rin frowned, not so much close to tears now as disappointed and confused. "Being rivals sounds a lot like being enemies."

Fuko frowned, knowing she hadn't explained herself correctly. "It's not like that. Rivals are… Listen, I want to beat him up, sure, but I don't want to kill him. If he wanted to kill me, I think I would know it. And we're traveling together, aren't we? Not happily, but happiness can be boring." Feeling guilty and worried about having frightened the girl, Fuko touched Rin's shoulder. "I know we haven't known each other that long, but please trust me. This is the best thing for now."

Rin began to pick at her fingers, looking down at her soiled peach.

"Rin-chan? Are you disappointed in me?"

"No. I mean… A little. I still think you can be friends. I still think you could convince Lord Sesshomaru to let you stay."

"Rin-chan, I can't…" Fuko bit her lip. Rin was cute and so much fun, but could she really stand to hang around a guy like Sesshomaru for very long? With the way things were going, she almost wanted to get lost on purpose!

Alas, the little human girl looked up at her with big sad eyes and the demoness buckled like a folding chair. "How about this? If it ever seems like Sesshomaru is trying to be friendly, I'll forget about this whole rival business and—and, well, we'll start over."

Rin poked at the raw fruit.

Fuko whined. "I know you love him and he's done so much for you, but he likes you. He's been a real jerk to me in ways you wouldn't understand, and if I just ignore it, if I let him get away with it, he's going to think that sort of thing is okay. I can't be his friend while he treats me this way."

Rin looked up. "What's he done, Fuko-chan? Why wouldn't I understand?"

"Well…" Hesitantly, Fuko loosed a bit of her youki. "I'll try to show you…"

For the next few minutes, Fuko and Rin tried to find just the right magnitude of power that would reach the little girl's level of awareness. As they experimented, Fuko explained about the mechanics of demon energy. As Rin was not a particularly sensitive human, it took a little time and quite a bit of youki, but then again, Fuko had exquisite control over the breadth and weight of her aura.

With the demoness' energy cloaked over her, Rin sat plank straight, feeling as though she was being touched by unseen hands. "Creepy!"

Fuko withdrew. "I know, right?! That's what Sesshomaru has been doing to me for the past few days— only harder! And he picks fights. All the while acting so superior. What a narcissist! 'Whatever dignity I allow you is something to be thankful for!' Just thinking about it makes me want to scream!" She shook her head sharply, as if she were flinging off water, and began to growl and grumble, "Creepy jerk. … show him! Just wait. Driving me crazy—no! _He _is! Try to smother me, will you? Thinks he's so strong… trying to prove somethin'? …Jerk'll get what's coming to him—"

Rin blinked. "What?"

Fuko sat back and blinked down at her. "Huh?"

"Lord Sesshomaru is doing it to prove something?"

"What? No. Who said that?"

"You did."

"When?"

"Just now."

"Nuh-uh."

Rin's cheeks puffed out. "Yes, you did, Fuko-chan. You were mumbling, but I heard you."

"I'm not responsible for what I say in this state, Rin-chan!" Agitated, the demoness rolled to her feet and began to pace. "I've never been treated this way before. Not for long anyway. Usually a little cerebral recalibration does the trick, but I feel like I could kick this guy's butt from here to Albuquerque and he would still look at me like I didn't know my head from my tail. It's like trying to communicate with a brick wall! If he calls stupid one more time, I'll… He's head got to weight a ton, the sheer arrogance—" Fuko barked in frustration.

It was a demon dog bark; the size and power behind it reflected her true form. Animals, demon and mortal alike, bolted from the immediate area. Peaches whose stems weren't firmly affixed gave up the ghost and fell. Two unfortunate game birds that had been roosting in the upper most branches of the peach tree died of fright and fell as well. Somewhere far removed from this scene, Sesshomaru paused in his thoughts and lifted his head. What had disturbed him? He couldn't tell. His nose itched, but of course he didn't sneeze.

In the silence after the peaches stopped falling, the two girls stared at each other, astonished.

Cheeks reddening, Fuko covered her mouth. _I must be losing it. _"Excuse me."

"Th-that's okay, Fuko-chan." Rin climbed to her feet a bit shakily, looking wide-eyed at all the peaches on the ground. "I didn't know you could do that."

"I'd sort of forgotten it myself."

"Do you think Lord Sesshomaru can bark like that?"

Fuko rolled her eyes. "I'm sure he can."

With something new to think about, Rin walked over to where the two birds had landed and poked at their feathery bodies. "Are these good to eat?"

"Sure." Fuko took a deep breath, trying to get herself under control. "Let's take them back to camp. Jaken might appreciate a meal."

"Lord Sesshomaru, too?"

The demoness blew out a sigh. "Sure. Why not?"

"I've never cooked for milord before…" Rin looked over her shoulder suddenly. "Fuko-chan, Lord Sesshomaru probably doesn't mean to be creepy."

"He does it quite deliberately, Rin-chan."

The little girl looked down at the birds and shook her head, saying quietly. "He's so strong. Maybe his youki's too big." Not waiting for a response, she scooped up the birds and turned. "Help me cook these, please. They have to taste really good!"

"What…? Okay." Fuko sighed again and began walking back toward camp. "Yeah. Totally. Let's make him some food, serve it up on a golden table with silver chopsticks. Fit for a prince."

"We should take these peaches…" Rin blinked. "How do we get a gold table?"

Fuko glanced at her friend incredulously and then couldn't help but laugh at the earnestness of her expression. "I…I was kidding. Let's just stick to the basics, okay?"

"Okay!"

And so the girls walked back to camp, laden with gifts and cooking up plans—all of which centered on a certain daiyoukai.

()

()()()()()()()()(Thirty hours later)()()()()()()()()

()

The afternoon sunlight blazed in the sky, glaring down over the land and bringing the first real spike of summer heat to Japan. The bright light glinted off water that stood placidly in a large natural basin in a mountain-side plateau. It had cracked in early spring, giving way to tectonic forces. Water flowed slowly out into an underground cavern, which in turn drained into a narrow cave mouth and a forty-foot drop. The new earthquake-born waterfall was thin but fairly impressive, height wise. The white rushing water traced a jagged cliff face, tumbling down by the hundreds of thousands of gallons toward the bottom. It was in the process of wearing a deep pool into the rock below, but that pool was still years in the making. For now, there was a rocky ledge under all that pounding water and this is where Sesshomaru sat in only his hakama, lotus position, back straight, holding the perfect posture for meditation as the water beat down on his strong shoulders. He embodied the stone around him in solidity and stillness, but in terms of strength he was stronger, for he would roam the earth long after the ledge beneath him was ground into sand.

The mist from the falls rose straight up like steam from an onsen, but the idea of such soothing relaxation was far from Sesshomaru's mind. Meditation, the activity he came here for, was far from his mind. Behind the steady rise and fall of his bare chest, his heart pulsed too quickly, forcing his hot blood round and round a body that felt ready to fly apart. His muscles strained against themselves, flexing minutely under his skin— twitching like the flanks of a primed stallion. His face was expressionless, as smooth and flawless as a mirror, but his closed, vibrantly-colored eyelids flickered and rippled with the power of his waking dream.

It was odd, odd, odd for the Western Lord to be in such a state—all the more unusual when one considered it was an agitation of his own making, mostly. He sat going over and over the contention between Fuko and himself. He picked apart their recent interactions, worrying them like one worries healing skin—which then itches more for all the attention. He didn't realize his trouble started just after their first bout as rivals.

Upon recognizing the opportunity his uninvited guest represented and deciding to take it, his analytic mind had turned toward the problem of bringing her firmly and finally to heel. Her acceptance or rejection had not really occurred to him, as he had already moved past that point. Sesshomaru sought not to convince but to acclimatize. He had assumed that this would be a slow process, despite his humorous imaginings of her collared and leashed, and this did not trouble him over much. He was still fairly young for a demon. There was no rush to beget an heir. He'd begun to methodically plot out their courtship, spinning the thread of expectation and supposition out centuries into the future.

Underneath this logic, though, the more bestial side of him lingered over other aspects of his decision. As a breeding pair, they would pass much of their lives together, less so after the pups grew beyond her care, but they, as dam and sire, would remain connected. He was not happy about this, but he was not dreading it either. Her disposition, while not really proper, was certainly amicable. The flaws of her upbringing or lack thereof could be corrected. And, he found no part of her truly offensive, though her ears were a bit perturbing. She was more than appealing enough to rut on a regular basis. He could recall perfectly her naked body and the feel of her beneath him. Her hips were about two and a half of his hand spans wide— a good size for pups. Her breasts were not large, but he'd never heard of a shortage of milk arising from breast size. They had appeared plump enough to feed one or two, anyway.

Almost immediately after beginning to consider their future, he knew there would be no technical issues with their sexual relationship. But what would it be like?

This question played across the back of his mind, distant from his surface thoughts but still drawing focus. Really, it shouldn't matter. What use was it to wonder about a sensory experience? Besides, he had learned only a half year into his physical maturity that all sex was in some way repetitious.

Still, some instinct had hinted to him, some scent in the air or some touch of her youki had told him that, with her, it would be _excellent._

It was strange that he should come to this conclusion. He did not usually rate his lovers, nor did he wish for special distinction among them. All he had ever sought was satisfaction, and females surrendered it to him. A man who let it become more than that exposed a weakness that any fool could take advantage of.

Being overcome by lust—it was the stuff of animals. The concept was as foreign to him as the act was repugnant. He could recall only two females with whom he even had to make an effort to restrain himself, and neither resembled Fuko of the North in any way. One had been his first lover, one of the many house nobles' daughters who had vied for his attention, and he attributed his eagerness to youth. The other had been a yuki-onna with whom he'd spent one winter and then parted with on easy terms. This he accounted for with a long dry spell on his part and the snow demoness' exceptional amount of experience.

He would guess from her attitude that Fuko had little experience and he had taken a demoness only ten years ago—not long ago at all. And yet the more he dwelled on it, the more he was certain that her body would be the prefect vessel for his lust. Something to enjoy, to savor.

Sesshomaru's mouth had watered as he pulled the knot in his obi taut and he had swallowed without really taking note.

All of this, his thoughts and his feelings, were picked apart and compiled again just as he began to lead her back to camp after his victory. His mind was working so quickly. On its surface, Sesshomaru shuffled through the roster of allied daiyoukai from other regions that he would invite to the West for her formal introductions, but intermittently the memory of water droplets rolling down Fuko's bare ribs or the flash of dainty white fang tips as she snarled at him drifted up. He brushed those images aside immediately, annoyed with himself, not taking the time to realize just why they were being drawn up.

Something to savor, he had thought vaguely between taking a mental survey of suitable etiquette tutors and deciding which advisors could be trusted to teach her the political history of the House of the Moon. _Something to savor. _

The words rose slowly but surely, like a tide coming in. The long walk back to camp had allowed for the idea to marinate, strengthen, and redouble in validity and pervasiveness until he held the Staff of Two Heads in his hands and realized abruptly that, while there was no reason to rush, there was also no reason to wait.

His decision to take her had made their joining an eventuality, something to plan for. With this new realization, time tables began to shift in his mind. Their joining became an inevitability that need suffer no prolonging.

As Sesshomaru turned and gave her the Staff of Two Heads, a spark of undeniable excitement heated his blood. He had repressed it by force of habit, and well he should have. Though he disregarded it, denied its importance out of hand, the matter of Fuko's acceptance or rejection manifested itself shortly thereafter.

Now, as he sat under the pounding waterfall, Sesshomaru recalled vividly the injustices of the past day and a half with the roaring water flooding into his silence.

He had given her the Staff of Two Heads to mark and she had repaid this kindness by calling out a challenge in front of everyone. In his mind's eye, after she dared flash her teeth at him and then turn her back, he darted after her and tackled her to the ground. They struggled with one another, in the same position as before with her soft rump grinding into his groin. He held her easily, letting his hands roam over her plush curves. This time she did him the courtesy of noticing. She squirmed, feeling the powerful contours of his body against her back and gradually realizing that she could not possibly best him. Her childish appearance made it easy to imagine her blushing, pouting, and her eyes glittering with dewy tears. He reveled in holding her there while she quailed and whined to be let up, until she finally exposed her throat and submitted.—

—What had actually happened (a reality that intruded just on the heels of this fantasy) was that she scooped Rin up, slung her across her back, and blithely said over her shoulder that they would be back with breakfast before disappearing into the trees, eyes completely dry and hard with defiance. All this happened before Sesshomaru could say a word in rebuke, and then he'd been too proud to chase after her, knowing he could not catch up on foot. So, the demon lord had to stew in it, the insult and the arousal, for her challenge also aroused him—which had annoyed him.

Jaken had chosen that moment to come out of his stupor. The imp had stomped around the clearing, clearly furious on Sesshomaru's behalf, and he began to spew forth all the censure for the female that he could: How dare she challenge the great Lord Sesshomaru? Such disrespect! Uncouth female! How dare she treat his lord so flippantly? Who did she think she was, carrying Rin off? In what manner had she been raised?

Sesshomaru had watched the lesser demon rant, feeling permissive. This had been tolerated in the past because she was the interloper and it might have been tolerated once more, considering she had just treated him with such disregard, but then Jaken had made the mistake of questioning him.

"Why, Milord? Why would you allow that worthless female undo all my work? Why should she be allowed to mark my weapon?"

He then had to remind his servant, forcefully, that questioning one's betters brought only misfortune. As Jaken squealed in pain under his heel, he had added, "I will no longer allow you to speak of her so offensively. She is by far your superior. Understood?"

"Y-yes, Milord!"

"See that you remember it." Sesshomaru had ground his foot downward as he stepped over the lesser demon. He would never say that he _enjoyed_ punishing Jaken, but it did usually serve to release pent up frustrations. Not this time, it seemed.

Huffing, he had left Jaken to cower with orders that the group be ready to travel by the time he returned. Sesshomaru flew off then toward the north-west, ostensibly to scout, but he had also wanted a repository for his frustration. He'd had to travel far to get out of the female's territory, but even beyond that, the forest demons were deep in hiding. The explosive activity of the last few days had cleared the area.

Thwarted in that mission and finding no threat to his following, the daiyoukai turned back.

As he flew, he had taken the uninterrupted time to consider how his plans had changed from just a day ago. For the most part, they hadn't. Claiming the strange female as a military asset for the West was essentially the same as claiming her for his mate. Once her goals were merged with his, she would fall in line. Not submissively. He was coming to realize that that was against her nature. But with time, she would gain a more appropriate attitude. Defeating her again tonight would further cement in her mind his suitability as a leader and provider, and afterward, she would have every reason to be more open to joining forces—and bodies.

Then, he had thought it might be advantageous to inform her of where they were heading. Bokuseno, his father's old advisor, was rooted in a forest some distance to the north-west. The ancient magnolia tree demon was well informed as a captive audience to the whispering of the earth. The chances were good that he would know something that the female would find helpful.

But Sesshomaru had no thought toward currying favor; it was not in his nature. A second after it occurred to him to share this information, he decided against it. Bokuseno was a great asset and his existence was kept a secret from even the most trusted of the house nobles. He would interrogate the tree himself, gain any information to be had, and then wait for the right moment to implement it. With something more than directions to hold over her, she would be easier to manage.

He had returned to the camp to find that the girls were still gone. Barely paying the groveling imp any attention, Sesshomaru had sat down to wait, brood, and plan.

They took their sweet time returning, and when they did, they carried two large game birds. Rin was excited. They had already agreed to bake them and were talking about spices. Jaken had informed them loudly and obnoxiously that they were late, that they kept everyone waiting, and that the birds would have to be discarded since they would take too long to cook.

Rin had peeked around the female's legs, twisting her hands together pitifully. "Milord? Do we really have to throw the birds away?"

The female had looked to him over Jaken's head, incredulous. "We have to leave _right now?_ We've been here for days. A couple more hours can't make that much difference."

He imagined briefly that when he had flared his aura to assert his dominance, the female had bowed her head in submission and apologized. But, again, this was a fantasy quickly dispelled by the memory of what did happen.

She'd growled in response to his power display and Rin had turned to the demoness, clutching at her kimono. "Is Lord Sesshomaru picking on you again, Fuko-chan? Don't be mad! He can't help that his youki's too big."

Jaken had looked aghast at the child. "Rin!"

Surprise had made him withdraw, but then he had bristled anew and stalked toward her. He'd understood at once that she had somehow alerted Rin to the reality of youkai auras and spun that information to her advantage—and after he'd leniently allowed her to befriend the child. Her youki had bristled in response to his aggression, but at least the female had enough sense to step away from Rin.

"What nonsense have you fed to her?" he'd demanded.

As she paced away from the others, she'd replied, "No nonsense. I explained what she couldn't see."

"I warned you against filling her head with lies."

"Are you kidding me?" She had looked to the little girl who was now behind him. "Rin-chan, tell him what I told you."

He'd stepped into her line of sight. "Do not attempt to involve a child in our conversation."

She then threw her hands up, as if he were the one being unreasonable "What the— how else are you going to know what I said. You're so paranoid! You choose not to believe anything I say, so why not hear it from Rin-chan?"

He'd felt the lightest tug on the sleeve of his kimono; Rin was seeking permission to speak. He stepped forward, pulling the fabric from the girl's grasp. "I will hear it from you. Explain yourself."

They had glared at each other for a full thirty seconds as Fuko's ears slowly flattened to her head in indignation. His heart had begun to pump more keenly. Staring at her like that, feeling her power ripple against his, he had realized it was her defiance that he found so compelling, as if his body was preparing to prove his virility, his right to dominate.

He would have moved toward her at that point, but then she had suddenly disengaged: her youki had snapped back as quickly as her ears flicked upright. Nose lifted disdainfully, she said, "Rin has so much admiration for you that she has trouble understanding why I dislike you. To illustrate a point, I explained that demons have auras, that the size of the aura depended on the strength of the demon, and that these auras were discernible to other demons and humans that are sensitive to such energies. I said to her, 'In my opinion, Rin-chan, your Lord Sesshomaru wields his youki like a blunt instrument. He tries to bully me with it'. She doesn't believe that you are trying to bully me." She glanced toward Rin and her gaze softened. "She defended you. You should be grateful to have such a loyal follower."

There were any number of things he could have said at that point. It had occurred to him to take her to task for her disdainful manner in addressing him. He'd wanted to chastise her for thinking to instruct him on how to treat Rin. He could have challenged her decision to tell Rin such information about demons or her right to share such asinine opinions with an impressionable child. She had put such a warped representation of their dynamic in Rin's head. _"Picking on you," _the girl had said, as if they were pups nipping at each other in the garden. If the intricacies of inu youkai pack hierarchy were going to be introduced to his ward without his expressed permission, they had best be explained _properly_.

In retrospect, he wished he had just borne down on her with all the weight of his youki and forced her into a physical confrontation then and there, but what came to the forefront of his mind at that moment was the necessity of correcting this impression she had of him. What she had called bullying was simple discipline, and to do so was not only his right, but his responsibility.

"Rin. You may roast your birds." He then walked toward the female, passing within inches of her to say, "You. Come with me."

She had snorted. "At once, your highness."

He'd ignored that for the moment and carried on towards the trees, and she'd followed despite her insolence.

Rin had called out after them, "Fuko-chan?"

"Don't worry about me. Why don't you have Jaken help you pluck those birds?"

As they walked, he had worked to calm himself. It was not like him to let someone anger him so easily, nor was he accustom to letting insult slide. But, he had counseled himself, one must quell the instinct to show her that her behavior was unacceptable through corporeal punishment. With her, it would lead to a struggle, which would only lead to bloodshed and hard feelings. He preferred that she be at least in a good mindset before he revealed her new position. He did not need her to like him, but if she chose to hate him, that would cause unnecessary drama.

And besides, he could imagine the distrust that would be roused by his change of attitude. He would have to waylay those concerns and show her the obvious advantages to being his before he informed her that she already was.

Remembering how quickly she had shifted from aggression to reserve moments before, he resolved to do just the same. He had reviewed what he would say to her. Though he detested having to explain himself, he knew he had to speak calmly with her about how she over stepped her bounds to avoid such mistakes in the future. Then they would have a calm, cool discussion about her behavior and her reasoning. She was so lacking in maturity. He knew he had to set a firm example.

They had stopped once they were well away from camp. He had turned toward her and began, "We will have a reasonable discussion about this."

"About what?" she interrupted. She was being contrary. He could see her intent behind the bland expression.

She had only been an arm's length away. Sesshomaru imagined that he had caught her throat in his hands at the moment and squeezed, but he could no longer picture violence against her without it logically playing out, and even in his fantasies she broke his hold, or simply drew her weapon.

He had stared for a few seconds before continuing, "You will agree that I am Rin's guardian."

She had looked taken aback. "Yes."

He'd added, "Not you."

"Yes."

"Then you must acknowledge that it is my decision when and if Rin should learn of demonic matters and in what manner she is taught."

Her ears bobbed and then she nodded slowly.

"Then you must recognize that you have over stepped your bounds."

"So I have."

Pleased, he had said, "Then I await your apology,"

The female had regarded him with lifted brows. "Sorry."

Displeased, he spoke with the slightest rumble behind his voice, "Your insincerity is palpable."

Her brows had lifted higher still. "What more is there to say? I told Rin something you weren't ready for her to hear. Sorry." She had cocked her head slightly. "Was that all you wanted? Because I should point something out now, while we're being reasonable."

"Speak."

She had sniffed at his tone, but then had proceeded to say, "I can't read your mind, so it's no use trying to censor myself according to what you may or may not believe Rin needs to know at any given time. But, I promise to try and keep your sensibilities in mind."

After a few moments of deliberation, he had decided that this was logical, if not totally satisfactory. He nodded minutely.

"Great. I'm glad we could chat."

She had turned to leave, but he was not finished. He had reached for her shoulder to stop her, but she was quick. She had turned back and glared at him for a moment before looking pointedly down at the claws of his right hand, which had been hooked tenuously in the hem of her sleeve.

"There is still the matter of your attitude."

That bland expression returned. "What about it?"

He had flexed his fingers, pulling the fabric into his fist as he clenched it. "It is unacceptable."

Her ears had flattened and she had pulled at the stressed fabric. "Don't tear my clothes, Sesshomaru."

A subtle tingling warned him that their auras had begun to clash, but he held firm against her tugging. "Lord Sesshomaru."

"I'll call you Sesshomaru, thanks." She had twisted her arm inside the sleeve and then finally reached for his hand.

He had yanked her forward a step and leaned toward her, speaking nearly against her lips. "You will address this Sesshomaru with _respect_."

The power of their combined youki had started to whip up the dirt and grass around them. She had tugged back with her whole body, green eyes steady and challenging. "I will address whichever Sesshomaru I please with the amount of respect he has earned."

He had yanked downward, stepping forward into her space so her hands were trapped between them before speaking in low tones. "_Watch yourself. _Our agreement in no way affords you special rights."

"I don't consider calling you by _your name _a special right. And why do you think that because I'm near you, it automatically makes me one of your subjects?"

Demonic wind had whipped higher, lifting the lightest ends of their hair. He bared his teeth. "You have the manner of a street urchin. By right of superior breeding, it naturally follows that this one should rule you."

She had stomped the instep of his foot—and with the pain, he disregarded his own counsel of only moments ago and shoved her back a half-step, creating the opening he needed to grab her ear in his free hand and twisted it. She had his ear in hand and was yanking before the action was even complete. The greater pressure he applied to her tender appendage, the greater force she used, dragging his head down until they were both on level and grimacing in pain. Their winds raged, flinging rocks and loose foliage back. They broke apart an instant later amidst snarls.

Even sitting under this waterfall, Sesshomaru could feel the phantom pains. After breaking apart, she had withdrawn her aura from his and left his youki without an opposing force, making the winds dissipate instantly. He'd taken three quick steps after her; she took three back. If he could have laid a hand on her, he would have shaken her. Furious, frustrated, he had said, "You are such a _child._" His clenched teeth parted now, as if wanting to echo the sentiment.

"Oh, but when _you _pull _my _ear—that's not childish."

It was, and it had disturbed him that that had been his first response. Now he wondered whether his position would be different if he had slapped her or dug his claws into the nape of her neck—some more appropriate chastisement.

She had rubbed her ruffled ear and then checked her sleeve. "Ripped. Great." She had glared at him, cradling the torn fabric like a wounded limb. "You! Get over yourself! If your breeding is so superior, why are you even in this situation?"

He had stroked a hand over the fur lying against his shoulder, reigning himself in. Perhaps she had meant 'this situation' as in the juvenile exchange of pinching and pulling that he could barely believe he had just played a part in, but it did apply to his overall situation: obligated to a stranger with no connections, saddled with a task fit for a porter. He had told himself then that if he kept letting his emotions rule him, the situation would last that much longer. He had to focus on turning this farce on its head.

He had narrowed his eyes and lifted his chin. "We shall revisit this once you are prepared to speak intelligently."

She had snorted at that.

He had begun walking toward her, back toward camp, and she had stood her ground. He had passed so close that they nearly brushed and he slid a sidelong look in her direction. Their eyes met. He recalled the moment as being rife with possibility.

But nothing happened. He passed without incident and continued toward camp with her trailing behind. This was not how he had wanted their interaction to play out.

The next hour had passed with his stony silence, but his mood barely glanced across the consciousness' of the females in his company. Rin was all taken up with the preparation of her birds and displayed a sort of manic happiness at picking wild herbs and learning how to build a dirt oven. Fuko disregarded him completely while digging the pit, mounding the grass and soil, and overseeing Rin as the girl banked the embers. Her eyes had skated over him, never lingering. Her ridiculous ears hadn't deigned to flick in his direction, even when he went so far as to sigh. If she would have acknowledged him, there would have been another confrontation. He would have made certain of it. He found that he intensely disliked being ignored.

After a long while of unreciprocated staring, he ceased fidgeting, not that his restrained shifting had been noticed or identified by anyone as such. His pent-up energies had been channeled into his aura instead.

She hadn't reacted as it began lapping along the edges of hers, except to deepen the false shallows of her power. Then youki had brushed so lightly, barely touching. It had been enough to let him feel the electric buzz of their opposed energies. He had refrained from encroaching further, keeping them in a delicate stalemate and smirking, pleased that she could not ignore him.

He began to watch somewhat less doggedly then as the two girls lolled next to the oven. Fuko had laid herself out full length on her back and held a jadeite stone over her head, turning it in her hands. Rin lay perpendicular to her with her head resting against her stomach and she seemed torn between watching the smoke rise from the mound and watching the rock turn.

"Fuko-chan? When will my present be ready?"

"A few more days, maybe."

They were quiet for a moment. Sparrows flew overhead, casting quick shadows over the grass. Ah-Un had stretched, climbed to his feet, and then began to graze.

"Fuko-chan? How much longer must the meat bake?"

"A couple hours."

Jaken, who had made a point of sitting on the edge of the clearing and glaring into the trees, glanced over his shoulder, scowled, and turned back. A breeze had rippled over all of them.

Sesshomaru had stared for a long while at her profile, not so much waiting for her reaction as surveying his new possession. His eyes had traced the plump curve of her cheek and caught the flash of her teeth as she answered Rin's questions. His gaze had sometimes drifted to her hands. The tendons on the inside of her wrists had flexed and pulsed, though by all outward appearances she was not exerting so much force on the stone. It was the same as when they sparred, he had thought. Her loose, almost casual fist dealt out a shockingly disproportionate amount of damage.

Thoughts of battle had filled his mind then, though his eyes lingered on the glinting green stone. He vaguely thought to ask exactly she intended to give to his ward, and then he was imagining the pleasure of holding her slim throat, exposed to him by starlight.

_Tonight_, he had told himself. _She will submit. I'll make sure of it._

Rin asked again, "How much longer till the birds are ready?"

"Still a while longer."

"Oh."

And then, five minutes later, "Is my present close to being done?"

"No, not really."

"Oh."

This refrain was repeated for the next hour, but the only one who grew annoyed was the small, bitter imp. He had the good sense to hold his tongue, however. The daiyoukai had gained a small measure of peace from sitting quietly, testing the edges of her youki and her tolerance as the clouds rolled by.

Under the waterfall, Sesshomaru only recalled this span of time as a prelude to the tumult to come, but at the time, he had been beginning to relax. He had found the turning of her hands, her slim fingers manipulating rock, mesmerizing. They served as an easy point to meditate on and clear his mind.

His eyes had still been focused on Fuko's claw tips as they dragged across the stone surface when life's clock had ticked over onto his next major frustration. As he had watched, he had slowly come to realize he and his pack were being watched as well.

All at once his attention had shifted from the female laid out before him and to the forest beyond. He'd reached out with his aura, methodically searching. His eyes had narrowed, but he didn't turn his head or give any other indication of it, he had simply searched—and found him.

His mother's errand boy.

Magenta-touched eyelids snapped open, but his sight was still clouded by memory. The water coursing through his white-silver hair did nothing to cool his ire. Anger mounted atop renewed frustration and Sesshomaru again cursed his manipulative mother. What possible business could she have, asking for his presence so soon after their last meeting? The last thing he needed was an interruption and dammed if he'd allow interference.

He hadn't realized that he valued the secrecy surrounding his acquiring Fuko until it was compromised and there was no way short of killing the scout to keep him from telling his mother. Sesshomaru _had_ considered killing him. It was just too conspicuous a move to risk.

As it was, his mother would rightfully assume he was invested in his new traveling companion, though she could not know to what extent. He could just imagine what lengths she might go to in order to find out.

Sesshomaru bared his teeth and fisted his hands, eyes narrowing. Let her come and observe, and too any other that wished to test him. He would ensure that none approached. Damned if he'd allow _any_ interference, or interruption, or _delays_. There would be no more _delays_.

The daiyoukai struggled to rein himself in. His mother… her errand boy…

This was taken care of—seen to. Even if that rouge Sanjuro persisted in feeding his rumor mill, the lesson imparted to him upon their meeting might as well have been burned into his skin. It nearly was, in fact. The scout now knew how little his life meant to the Lord of the West, and how quickly it could be forfeit. Sesshomaru's eyes slid closed again, their vigil eased by a vicious smirk. His hands unfurled into calm nesting cups and he achieved the perfect lotus position again.

He'd left the camp on foot amidst requests for a swift return from Jaken and Rin, and once he was just out of ear shot, he condensed his youki mightily. He became an orb of energy and traversed the distance between his camp and the scout in mere seconds. The shock on the lesser demon's face was worth the expended energy and the discomfort of compressing himself into such a state.

The meeting had been short and brutal, though he refrained from laying a hand on the scout. He let his displeasure show through the pressure of his aura. Sanjuro, who had been rash enough to spy but sensible enough to admit it outright, had come crashing down from his bower by force of youki alone. Sesshomaru had been especially pleased with the effectiveness of this display. There was a certain satisfaction in it that could not be gained from disciplining Jaken. It proved that the Western Lord was as formidable as ever, not that he needed reassurance. It was just this fool female he had found who didn't know when to be cowed.

As complete as his subjugation of the scout was, Sesshomaru was the one left feeling as though his freedom was being curtailed when the lesser demon fled. The message that had been delivered on his lady mother's behest was short, but oh so obviously worded for great effect. _It would please your poor, devoted mother to be gifted with her honorable son's esteemed presence at this coming summer's peak. _

He had told the scout that he would not be traveling to the West this season and the lesser demon had had enough dealings with him to know that no other explanation would be forthcoming. It was not as if this was unusual. He had denied many a request to return to the castle.

As soon as he was alone, Sesshomaru had destroyed the message with his dokkaso. The words had been written on lamb skin parchment rather than the usual gampi paper, an allusion to Rin that did not escape Sesshomaru's notice. His mother was not so heavy handed as to use human skin, but the intent was there.

As if he needed to be reminded of his ward's second death. Or the recompense his mother might ask for reviving her.

Whatever that would be, it would not involve a simple visit.

Distracted by this new turn of events and feeling ambivalent about the encounter, he had completed the walk back to camp without attention, so he was not expecting to be tackled in the knees by his little human.

Though he had not really been hindered by her arms wrapped around his legs, he had stopped and looked down at her blankly. The girl was not usually so forward.

Her eyes glittered up at him with excitement. "You came back! You came back just in time, Lord Sesshomaru!"

Jaken was at the girl's side in an instant, trying to pull her off of him. "Rin! Have you lost your wits? Don't grab at Lord Sesshomaru so!"

"Let go of me!" Rin twisted, trying to wiggle away while still clinging to his legs.

He had watched the two struggle before him and it had been on the tip of his tongue to demand an explanation when Fuko appeared and lifted them both by the backs of their clothes. The girl she had tucked against her side and the imp she had held at arm's length as he flailed.

"AH! Milord, help! Unhand me, you- you!"

"Why don't you go take a seat at the table." She had tossed him back toward the center of the clearing. Sesshomaru had noticed then that a round stone chabudai had appeared there, evidently manifested by fox magic. To his surprise, not only the birds were atop it. There had been roasted vegetables and sliced peaches wreathed in wild flowers, and stone cups arranged around a tea pot with steam pouring from the spout. Grass-woven zabuton marked out four seats.

"Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin wiggled in the demoness' grasp. "We waited for you! Please join us!"

His first thought was to decline, but the combined gazes of the two females gave him pause. Rin was obviously excited and her eyes were expectant as she dangled. He could imagine the care she had put into preparing the birds and fixing the spread. He couldn't fathom why. He had told her before that he did not eat human food.

Fuko stood calmly with her arm supporting the child. Her eyes were watchful, ears tipped forward attentively, but her lips were slightly parted as if she would say something. He had expected to be ignored again. He had wondered if she had constructed the table and brewed the tea with him in mind. Would she invite him as well, if only to be amicable? Was this to be in lieu of an apology?

Their eyes had met and held. She had let Rin slide down to her feet.

Rin had come closer again, but refrained from touching. "Please, milord?"

He had continued to look to the female, wondering.

And then she had lifted her arms and crossed them behind her head, her expression shifting to one of annoyance. She had given a disquieted sigh before turning and walking away.

Rin had glanced after her. "Fuko-chan…"

His eyes had narrowed on her back as he watched her prod Jaken with her foot, saying, "Get up, please. Rin worked so hard. Go sit at the table."

He had snorted, thinking that the two scrawny birds would not have been enough apology.

Irritated and so wanting to reject the meal, Sesshomaru had nevertheless focused on Rin's feelings. He touched the child's shoulder, saying simply, "Come, Rin," before leading her toward the table. He had decided that he would accept the meal as Rin's gift. It was only polite, and the girl had earned his politeness.

At the table, it immediately became obvious that the entire scene had been constructed on Rin's initiative. He sat there swallowing feelings of absurdity as Rin played hostess from her seat his left, chattering eagerly about the preparation of the meal, pouring the tea to the best of her ability, and clumsily cutting the meat with a dull stone blade. She mashed more than she cut, but she did so with such a look of determination. He had never been served so inelegantly before and yet he was not moved to object.

Fuko sat across from him, watching with lifted brows as he humored the human child. He'd met her stare stoically as Rin piled meat before him until there was no more room, since he'd declined the roasted roots and the fruit. Jaken sat on his right, grumbling about the wasted time even as he accepted nearly half a bird and that same amount of fruit and vegetables onto his plate.

When she was served, Fuko accepted only a single piece of meat. "I had all those peaches earlier, sorry."

Rin had been poised with another large chunk of steaming white flesh and browned skin. "Are you sure you don't want anymore?"

"No, thank you."

"Okay." The child plopped the piece onto her own plate and quickly scooped up some of the other dishes. "Itadakimasu!"

"Itadakimasu," she had echoed, along with Jaken.

They each ate quickly and silently. Though he had begun eating without delay, it did not escape his notice that Fuko forwent the chopsticks and finished in three bites. She then settled in to watch, sipping her tea with both elbows resting on the table. It had annoyed him to no end that she would so blatantly watch him after ignoring him for hours. The longer he went without looking back, the more he felt her gaze, and finally towards the end of the meal he looked up into her eyes.

"Is there a reason you watch me so closely?"

Her brows lifted, one ear fell to the side and the other pointed straight up. "I didn't think you would eat."

He had let his stone chopsticks click sharply as he placed them beside his plate. Their auras had touched again then, so lightly, only offering the slightest sensation. "And why is that?"

One corner of her lips had tipped upward and she had glanced into her tea. "You don't seem like the type of guy to have a good appetite, is all."

His eyelids flickered and he let out a disdainful hiss, too faint to be heard with the roaring falls. Just what had she been implying with that imprudent observation? He hadn't known then and he didn't know now, but he was as certain as ever that this had been an insult.

At the time, uncertainty about the exact nature of the insult kept him from responding with anything other than a rumbling of his aura, and the moment was lost when Rin suddenly asked the table what they thought of the meal.

Honestly, it was the only saving grace of the whole morning for him. Though he had not been hungry, and though he generally did not eat cooked food, it was surprisingly good. Not as good as freshly-killed meat, but moist and flavorful. It pleased Rin when he told her so.

"I'm so happy you liked it, milord," she said, and then turned to the female. "Fuko-chan. Did you like it?"

"I loved it." She had licked her lips neatly, pink tongue flashing. "Great job, Rin-chan."

The little girl giggled. "And you, Master Jaken?"

The imp's response had been positive, but beyond that Sesshomaru could not recall. Fuko had begun cleaning the fingertips of her right hand with quick little licks. He could imagine how she would have reacted if he had done what he had thought of doing then, though why he should help clean her hands was beyond him.

He had left the table then, frustrated, and stood on the edge of the clearing to wait for the others to decamp.

They had such a late start that they did not make it nearly as far as he wanted before the sun began to set. The sight of the reddening sky had displeased him for this reason, but he had also felt a welling excitement. _Soon_, he had thought.

_Not soon_, he thought now with gritted teeth. _Not soon at all_. Remembering it frustrated him so deeply that a soft growl began to rumble up from his chest. The daiyoukai misremembered himself: the epitome of boyish anticipation, eager, looking to Fuko again and again with lust clear in his eyes. It disgusted him. How could he have allowed himself to pant after her? How could he have allowed such manipulation?

In truth, to all but the dog scout, Sanjuro, Sesshomaru had seemed his usual ill-tempered self. But, under the crashing of the waterfall and with the thundering of his own wild heart, he was convinced that his customary veil of frost had fallen.

She must have been aware of his affliction. How else could she have known to take advantage of it? How else could she have taunted and baited him as she did that night—leading him every step of the way into her trap?

_How dare she attempt to break me down? To drive me insane? I won't let her, I'll—!_

But his memories flowed on, pulling him into the next moment. He had waited while they set up camp at the base of a cliff and then had gone out to secure the area while Fuko and Jaken took Rin to find food for her evening meal. He had spent the last few hours' travel fantasizing about peace and quiet. Fuko had prodded Rin into a sing along, or so he remembered it. Both girls had clear, high voices, but the songs were… asinine. The female claimed they were well-known songs, classics. "Traveling songs," she had told Rin. But damned if he would ever live through the tedium of listening to them count a thousand bottles of sake taken down from a wall again. He had been too proud to let the female know just how much she was annoying him, but he promised himself, never again.

Sesshomaru had been sure to mark out a smaller area than she had and do it much more inconspicuously, thinking that if he wished to go hunting later, the hapless beasts of the forest would not be so scarce. They were approaching a mountain range that would need crossing before they could reach Bokuseno, so he also took the extra time to scout ahead some nine or ten miles to the base of the pass where he planned to cross. There, he had found only the old tracks of a single horse and rider, and these were so weather-beaten as to have lost their scent.

He had returned, somewhat soothed by the time away but still anticipating the night to come.

Rin lay in her bed, but had jumped up to greet him when he appeared, as did Jaken, who had been tending the fire. While his mind was still consumed with other matters, he had taken the time to address them both, listening to Jaken long enough to ascertain that nothing had happened in his short absence and then bending his ear to Rin, vaguely taking in her account of all that had happened while assessing her health. She was energetic, happy, and smelled passably clean. She had gained a little weight, he had realized. Her color seemed a bit high, though he could attribute that to the warm furs.

He laid his hand on her head and she stopped midsentence to beam up at him. "Hn." He had scratched her scalp lightly. "Bed."

"Yes, milord." She had shuffled over to her pallet and threw herself down, calling goodnight to each of them in turn until he gave the order to sleep.

"Yes, milord," she had said again and slept.

Fuko had crouched over her and whispered under her breath, "She fell asleep just like that? Weird."

Jaken had huffed as he went back to the fireside. "_She_ at least has enough sense to obey Lord Sesshomaru."

"Right." The word had been said on a laugh. She stood then, linking her hands behind her head and turning away from the girl, the fire, and the rest of them. "Well, see you all in the morning."

He had followed her into the trees.

Just a few steps out of camp, she had glanced over her shoulder, frowning at him. Then, a few yards later, she had turned completely and said, "Hello?"

It had been his turn to lift a brow at her.

She had stared at him for a long moment before her arms slid down and crossed in front of her. "Why are you following me?" When he merely lifted his brow higher, she growled. "Don't be a jerk about it, just answer."

"Hmph. You challenged me, did you not?"

"I did, didn't I?"

He had gestured for her to lead on, so eager to fight that he could not imagine why she was delaying. He hadn't understood her intent, had not included himself in her 'you all'.

She had cocked her head. "I told you that I wasn't going to lose tomorrow. And I won't."

They had stared at each other for a few moments. Her had ears twitched minutely.

"Not going to lose _tomorrow_," she had repeated.

Sesshomaru's fingers had flexed, but he forced them to relax. It was true. That was what she had said. That did not give her the right to look at him as if he were some poor slow child. Rather than accept his mistake (or even really acknowledge it), he had stepped toward her. "We will spar tonight."

"Tomorrow."

Their auras had touched. Spurred on by this contact, he had stepped closer to glare down at her from his greater height. "Tonight."

She had rolled her eyes. "Um, no."

Even remembering, he wanted to strangle her. But when he had lifted his hand, she had rapped his fingers with her knuckles, and then left her hand poised between them, ready to bat his away again. "Hey. Unless you want a repeat of this morning, you keep your hands to yourself."

He had glanced at her cautionary hand, disdainful, and then let his fall as he slid his calculating gaze over her over. "You fear me so greatly that you will not fight me now. What could possibly change in a day?"

The glint of anger in her eyes was exactly what he had wanted to see and the surge of power in her youki exactly what he had wanted to feel. "Ha! You wish I was afraid of you!" But then she had smirked. As many times as he had expected to see it, her gloating expression had surprised him then. "You just wait. Everything can change in a day."

She had darted backward, quicker than his eye could follow. From beyond his sight, her words had drifted back to him. "I'm warning you. Don't follow me. Just prepare yourself!"

And then she had been gone. His hair had been lifted on the gust her movement had created and he had remained stuck in surprise and anger as it slowly settled. He had thought that he could taunt her into a battle, but she had escaped him. For now. She truly thought she could make him wait? "What are you planning?" he had wondered aloud.

Then Jaken approached from behind and he realized that his retainer had heard everything. For once, his voice was quiet. "How dare she? To think that she could plot against you. Milord, do you wish me to follow her?"

He had started forward, intent on tracking her. "This does not concern you."

"But, milord—"

Sesshomaru struck fast, snarling, viciously silencing the imp and knocking him to the ground. Jaken had cowered there, clutching his skull and mewling. It was pathetic.

Disgusted, he had flexed his fingers over the lesser demon and the sound of cracking knuckles was the only warning Jaken had before dokkaso dripped just inches from his face. "Stand or die."

Jaken leapt to his feet, shaking like a craven fool, but standing nonetheless.

Softly, he had asked, "Do you think me weak, Jaken?"

"N-no, milord!"

"So, you must find this one incompetent?"

"Not at all, n-not one bit, milord!"

"Then," he flicked his fingers and acidic droplets landed just shy of Jaken's toes. "why do you seek to interfere in matters that do not concern you?"

Eyes bulging, he had spoken quickly. "I only seek to aid you as I always have in the past, milord. To deal with those that are beneath you, so milord does not have to waste his time."

"It is my time to waste as I so choose, is it not?"

"O-of course! It is most certainly, milord!"

He flicked his fingers again, this time off to the side. "Listen well, Jaken. Your life depends on it." A shudder passed through the kappa, but he remained on his feet. Sesshomaru continued, "I will deal with this female, this Fuko of the North, personally. I need no proxy here. What goes on between us is not for you to question or concern yourself with."

"Y-yes, milord."

"Hn."

As he had turned, his gaze had fallen on the tiny smoking craters his dokkaso left behind. He would not have been moved to such a display if he had not been waiting, holding himself back from Fuko. He would not have reacted so harshly if she had not just denied him the relief he had been promised. Disgusted with himself now, he had continued on into the forest.

And into the mire of deceit and trickery his new object of fixation had left for him.

It had been hours, over half of the night, before he found her, the _real_ her, balanced on a spire of rock at the edge of a clearing filled with tall grass. It was not another ghost with her shape and scent, nor was it another rabbit or toad transmogrified and set loose to confound him. After rooting out false trails and chasing apparitions across the entire range of her homing area, he could tell the difference. Eventually, he had been moved beyond frustration and anger to quiet, steely determination. The deadly calm made it easier to read her intent and break out of the cycling kitsune-esque trickery. So, as he had glided toward her from behind, as cool and stealthy as a shadow, he had not been without reason. He had resisted his first impulse, which was to tackle her down from her perch, and instead watched from a distance.

She had removed her boots, as well as her kimono and her weapon, which left her in the plain cloth kosode she customarily sparred in. All three discarded articles had been left at the foot of the rock pile. At the top, her toes of her left foot had delicately curled and gripped—belying the strength shown in the striking demon marks—supporting the rest of her as she had stood straight backed, right knee and elbows tucked against her body, and fists clenched at the ends of tensed forearms.

His only warning had been the slight flexing of her toes before she had pivoted. He had not attempted to evade, knowing that he would move too late, and instead prepared to leap at her. But, her eyes had been closed and he just managed to restrain himself.

He had prowled forward, coming to a stop just under her feet, near her discarded clothing. She had continued to stand frozen in that position, perhaps meditating or daydreaming, for it had been almost too easy to come up on her unawares.

In reality, she had being doing something much more dangerous, annoying, and insulting than that.

She had pivoted again after some time and then had suddenly leapt down from her perch, flipping extravagantly through the air before landing far afield at the edge of a burned out area of grass. He had ignored the scent of ash and smoke till now, thinking it another spent forest fire, but while he had watched, she relit the blackened grass with foxfire. It had burned indigo and low to the ground, but had then shifted color to violet. Smoke had begun to rise.

With a gesture of her hand, the smoke had coalesced into the figure of a person and Sesshomaru had recognized the type of magic that had had him chasing shadows for the last few hours. He had kept a reign on his annoyance though, and had been glad of it when she called out, "Hey. Will you help me again?"

A will-o-wisp phased out of invisibility, bringing with it the scent of the swamp in which it dwelt. They were odd creatures, quasi-sentient balls of gaseous flames and youki, and this one had bounced about as was usual to their flighty natures.

"Then assume the position, oh wispy one!" she said, and the spirit of the swamp drifted toward the smoke figure.

They had combined into a more substantial form with a certain mass and definition. A familiar mass and definition. Sesshomaru had blinked slowly, feeling the beginnings of an eye twitch and settled in to watch Fuko spar with a ghostly version of himself.

Sesshomaru immediately disassociated himself with the smoke shadow. How could a copy compare with the genuine article, after all? But, for a short time, he had been reluctantly impressed. Putting aside the indignity of having his likeness copied for such a purpose, he had almost been flattered by the exactness of her recreation. Though it was not aesthetically the same, being monotone in color and slightly transparent, when it came to battle it matched him motion for motion. He had watched avidly, tensing when he himself would have moved differently than the smoke doppelganger, but he had found that he could not really object to any one move it made or pinpoint any one attack that was unlike him or unusual to his style.

Watching them had given him a different kind of insight as well. Though he had kept his youki hidden, he had felt her youki flaring and pulsing as it did when they sparred in the past, but it did not burn as it should. The will-o-wisp could not generate enough youki to match her, and so her fighting spirit had no opposing force to spur it on. The dampened power of her aura had called to him, reminding him of how it felt to vie against her.

But they did not use youki when they sparred; or, rather, it was not meant to be a part of the exercise. They both had to work to keep it in background, clashing but with the swelling and flares becoming more touch than attack. It was in the physical realm that they contended. Sesshomaru would focus on the battle, on her body, and work to anticipate her movements, but he would remain very aware of the sensation of their demon energies stirring.

He had been so absorbed by challenge and sensation that he did not realize the intimacy of their matches. He'd had to see it from the outside to realize that, though they were lashing out at one another, a passionate, silent conversation was going on between them. Movement and response, attack and defense were effortlessly synced—quite simply, they were dancing. This was the oldest sort of courtship.

_Here it is_, he had thought with narrowing eyes. _This is the evidence that proves my instinct, and yet I am not being allowed to partake._ His lips had curled slightly, barring teeth, and any feelings of being impressed or flattered by the shadow doppelganger evaporated.

And then it had started to lose. She broke its guard and unbalanced it, the bodily dialogue violently interrupted, and Sesshomaru had had to sit and watch himself get beaten down. Then she had stood the doppelganger up and they had gone through the motions of its defeat again. Each time the same combination of blows disabled it. One to the solar plexus, partially blocked by a counter, but that would be ducked and she would be set up for the next: a rapid multi-punch to the left side. It would be staggered, and then she would drop and sweep it off its feet with a low kick.

After the doppelganger's third failure, Sesshomaru had had to struggle to bite back a rebuttal. Did she think him so dense as to be caught out by the same trick again and again? That will-o-wisp might have gotten some idea of his style, but it certainly could not match him for tactical innovation.

And she had seemed to agree. "Freeze! Right here!" She had been about to execute the multi-punch for the fourth time when she stopped and the shadow stopped just as exactly on her command. "See? He would attack again here. You're not so off balance that you can't use your knee."

Exactly, he had thought. She had then reached up to guide his shadow leg in the motion.

At this point, she had been crouched before the smoke doppelganger (an accurate copy of himself), holding and adjusting its leg. Her hands slid high on its thigh as she pressed it up and advised the will-o-wisp on how to move its smoke body. "How does that feel? You should be steady on your foot. Here, let me..."

Sesshomaru had watched his double lean forward, its empty eyes watching her manipulate its thigh. It had seemed to him the doppelganger was smirking and he was so focused on the sight that he had barely noticed how she repositioned its foot. He had begun to feel a bit more annoyed and a bit more than annoyed as well. He had wondered, what gave her the right to deny him and then turn around and satisfy her own needs with his likeness? What could sparring with a mindless swamp light offer that doing so with him could not?

Thinking back on that moment, Sesshomaru realized he had been envious—and rightfully so. She had been stealing from him. His fingers curled, claws slicing the misty air. He would have been willing to help her practice, if only she had asked.

(The daiyoukai was of course not considering the amount of asking—i.e. begging, groveling—that would have been needed to convince him or the additional price he would have asked for this service. Nor was he considering the ultimate futility of practicing a feint with the opponent the feint was designed for.)

He had been just about to show himself and demand recompense when she had stood and leapt back. "Okay, again!"

He had regained a bit of composure the instant Fuko no longer crouched at his double's feet and had resolved to watch this play out. If she mistakenly believed she would surprise him with an unbeatable attack, it would be that much easier to dominate when next they fought. He had been even more convinced of his plan. They communicated so readily with their bodies that there was no doubt that defeating her was the way to convince her of his superiority.

The pair before him had not just skipped through the motions of battle, however. They had started again from the beginning, and Sesshomaru had to wait, watching an unworthy copy of himself pitted against an opponent that was rightfully his.

The match had been progressing in bouts of cautious circling and rapid bursts of motion. During one of the phases of caution, just as the doppelganger had come close with its back presented to him, she had rushed forward and swung. The double had moved to deflect was had turned out to be a feint, but managed to counter the two-fingered strike to the vulnerable point above his hip bone with his knee. She had rolled with that strike, just managing to avoid the following stomp, and grabbed its ankle for leverage as she swung herself up, around its body and up in the air behind its back.

Sesshomaru had seen this acrobatic move before, and he'd fallen prey to it. The skin on the back of his neck prickled in remembered pain. Though he'd resented his double, he had narrowed his eyes in anticipation of her mid-air axe kick. _Grab it_, he had thought—and the doppelganger reached back, its hand moving into place before she was even in position. An instant later, when she had gone for the kick, her heel landed in its palm. It had latched on despite the shockwave of power the force of her kick must have sent through its hand, pivoting and using that momentum to twist her leg, coming around just in time to catch her other foot when it lashed out, forcing her to land on her hands. A second twist had spun her onto her back.

_Yes!_ he had thought—and the word or some other slight sound of pleasure must have passed his lips.

"Let go!" she had ordered, and just that quickly she'd rolled upward out of its grip, twisted, and came down with another axe kick, this one laced with explosive youki and aimed at his exact location.

The blast had come ripping toward him, tearing up the ground, and, though he was caught by surprise, he easily dodged it. It had met and destroyed the rocks behind him, sending out cloud of pulverized rock and shrapnel that he stood firm against. Then, sensing an attack, he turned and raised his forearms to block a kick aimed for his face from Fuko herself.

Sesshomaru had experienced the shockwave and was forced to leap back under its power.

She rebounded off his block, flipping once before landing a short distance away.

They had regarded each other as the dust had settled, her crouched in the beginning stance of the Ii-Kitsune ryu, he in the first stance of the familial fighting style he'd learned as a boy. _Now_, he had thought. Imaging her fury at being found out, he had smiled. He would not let her escape, not with victory so close. Their auras had touched with electrifying results and he slid one foot forward, edging toward his opening attack.

Under the earthquake-born waterfall, Sesshomaru bared his teeth at his past self._ You arrogant fool._

Slowly, she had smirked and her stance loosened. "Sesshomaru. What time is it?"

His eyes had narrowed, but he ignored the question, instead edging toward her again.

She had stood straighter, almost dropping the stance all together. "I think it should be past midnight." She had glanced up at the sliver of moon and found that its seat had fallen low in the sky, and then laughed, "Yep, tomorrow already." Her self-assurance should have served as a warning.

He'd been a second from lunging when she flapped her hand at him casually. "Why don't you get ready, if you're still so eager to spar? I'm putting my shoes back on."

She had turned and began to walk toward the then canted stone spire, swinging her arms like an excited child.

He had closed his eyes, felt a tremor shake his spine from the force of his suppressed response, and then had walked over to the shattered rocks to store his armor, weapons, and kimono, trying to ignore his opponent as she did stretching excises nearby.

Moments later they met each other from across the burnt out battle field, her crouched in the beginning stance of the Ii-Kitsune ryu and him in the first stance of the familial fighting style.

But the match… had not gone according to plan.

Hours later, the rising sun—the sun that would bring summer's first heat— had found Sesshomaru on his back, blinking dazedly up at the light and wondering like a fool how long he'd been unconscious. As he sat up, he had felt the myriad pains and bruises along his left side and the back of his head intensely, as if they were instantly acquired instead of built up over the course of battle. Jagged pebbles fell out of his hair as he had moved, and he recalled that it had been a kick he caught full on across the chest that sent him head first into the much abused stone spire and ended the match.

That was how he had lost and it was a bitter pill, but why he had lost still confounded him. Why was it that he could not keep her from striking his left side? He had known what she was going to do and how she going to do it, and still he could not defend against it in the heat of battle. All it took was a series of feints and he had been pulled into the same downward spiral as the doppelganger.

Sesshomaru had growled, wiping his bangs out of his face, thinking on his newly realized vulnerabilities, but then her soft laugh had made him look up then and he had found her standing over him, arms akimbo.

Her sweat-slicked skin had been flushed rosy, her narrowed eyes had glittered with satisfaction, and she had been panting, her pink tongue lying out over sharp white teeth. She had bent over at the waist, leaning in close to him. "I won," she said, and there was a low growl behind the words.

His stomach had tightened and his cock had twitched despite his pain.

Blinking slowly, he had lifted his hand and reached for her, toward that little grin. She blinked back, ears flicking downward and eyes nearly crossing in order to track the unhurried progress of his hand. He had wiped the blood from the scape on her cheek with his thumb before she thought to pull away.

"Hey." She had glared at him.

He had stared up at her, inhaling the scent of her blood before touching the thick red droplet to his tongue in order to taste the dust and the sweet metallic tang.

Her eyes had widened, but then she frowned, glaring again. "Quit it! You're just trying to distract me." She had crouched between his legs, glaring into his face. "There's no getting away from this. I won."

He had leaned toward her, thighs tensing.

"It wasn't easy. Not at all. So, I think I deserve a reward, don't you?" She had chuckled softly, the tone lower, almost sinister. "Finally. It's time for your penalty, Sesshomaru." She had lifted a hand and poked his nose. "It's time for you to eat your words."

He had snapped at her finger, his teeth clicking sharply together when she snatched it away.

"None of that!" She had poked him again. "Biting, _Lord_ Sesshomaru? Where's your noble upbringing?"

He'd caught her wrist. "Stop talking."

Her eyes had widened in alarm, but he had already slung his arm around her back. Flexing, Sesshomaru had pulled her close, into his lap, and his hand had cradled the back of her head. He would have nipped her neck, or her lips, but she held them apart with stiff arms and bared teeth. He continued to bring his strength to bear, hooking his claws into her kosode and fully intending to remove it.

But, at the sound of rending fibers, she had snarled, wedged a knee between them, and then her foot had been planted in his stomach. Her legs were strong. When he moved to shift his hold on her, she twisted away like an eel. She had landed back on her bottom, he had shifted toward her onto his knees, but she dug her foot in against his gut, forcing him back. "What are you doing!? Admit your defeat and accept your penalty, Jerk-face!"

It was as if he only half heard the words. He had grabbed her by the ankle and yanked it to the side, intending to drag her to him again, but her other foot drilled into his crotch, just shy of his still roused member. Even missing, a jolt of pain shot through him. Disgusted by this turn of events and slightly daunted at the thought of a more damaging kick, he'd swept both feet to the side and snapped, "Just what is it that you want from me?"

She had withdrawn her feet, crossed her legs as well as her arms, and answered, "Even if you disbelieve it in the deepest cockles of your hypothetical heart, you are going to treat me as an equal. That means no more trying to crush me with your youki." She lifted a finger, ticking off every point and growing angrier as her list ran down. "No more grabbing at me like some sort of Neanderthal who can't use his words. No more ordering me around—if you need me to do something, try asking! And how 'bout this, just as a bonus, if you feel like you're going to say something derogatory, just don't say anything at all! I liked you better when you didn't talk!"

That he had let her finish this little tirade was baffling to him. He recalled only annoyance and frustration, he had wanted to swat her words away like flies. At least her accusations woke him enough from his lustful revere for his guttural response, "Ridiculous. It is your behavior that is improper, not mine."

She sneered. "You lost, buddy. This is the price you pay. If you weren't so full of yourself, maybe you could have lucked out and I'd be in your place."

"I do not rely on _luck_," he had said, easing forward.

"It certainly wasn't your skill that put you here."

He had lunged at her, but she leapt backward, leaving him crouched where she once sat and her just out of his reach.

"Use your words!"

"Be still!" He had lunged at her again, and came very close. Close enough to tear the hem of her kosode.

And in the next instance she was glaring at him from the edge of the clearing with her kimono and spear in her arms. "That's it! You asked for this!" And then she was gone.

Sesshomaru's eyes opened and he glared out over the magnificent view from his ledge under the waterfall. This, this was memory was the most bitter. She had been looming over him in triumph, in domination, jabbing at his nose and chiding him like a delinquent pup, and he had been so consumed with his lust that it was all he could act on. Sesshomaru did not understand himself in that state.

After escaping and leaving him there in the clearing, she had returned to camp and told Jaken that he was injured. He had been interrupted in his destruction of the forest around him by Jaken's rescue effort. The daiyoukai had still been sweaty and bruised from battle, though all his small cuts had healed, and the imp was so beside himself at the bizarre sight of his disheveled lord that his started wailing. Sesshomaru had had to knock him out to stop his caterwauling.

He'd stormed in to camp to find her polishing the blades of her spear intently and demanded an explanation. She had ignored him and he'd attempted asserting his dominance with youki once again. She rebuffed him with such force and swiftness that there was a blast of wind and an audible electric crackle. He'd answered with a reflexive surge of his own power, and the misty nature of her aura coalesced with his into a hurricane.

Their youki collided so forcefully that it jolted Rin into wakefulness. "What's happening!?" she had cried over the whipping winds of the unnatural storm.

Fuko had shouted an answer without looking up from her polishing, "We're having a disagreement!"

He had stepped threateningly toward her, ignoring Rin's anxious whining. "You will answer me when I ask you a question."

She hadn't even looked at him. Instead, she had rolled to her feet and twirled her spear. He'd laid a hand on his own weapon, questioning whether or not she would really attack, but then there was a flash of light and a clap of thunder, and their combined energy had dissipated. She had tapped the tip of one blade on the ground—casting a spell, as he'd soon realized.

Her youki was thereafter locked behind a barrier.

"What is the meaning of this?" he'd demanded. His attempts to touch her with his power caused nothing but an arc of energy to fizzle against a suspended spherical surface. He felt nothing but what one feels when they touch a wall.

"It's a barrier. To keep your aura away from mine."

"Remove it."

"No."

Sparks had flown, his youki bouncing off her barrier and lighting up the early morning grey. She had smirked at him.

At first, the change was merely annoying. He could not feel her to attempt it from afar, so he was forced to trail after the girls as they foraged in order to attack the barrier. He had been so certain he could force it open.

At first, Rin had pleaded with the demoness to take it down, but then the child had noticed the shifting colors of the sparks. Fuko had distracted her with tales of fireworks as they walked and that was the end of that. Rin had giggled and clapped at his every attempt to penetrate the sphere.

Jaken eventually returned from his sprawl in the woods and found Rin eating grilled fish and berries under a shower of sparks. He questioned the light show and Rin had replied, "Lord Sesshomaru is making fireworks!"

The imp's eyes had bugged, but then he sputtered, "Of course. They're beautiful, milord!"

He stopped then, aware that the barrier would not fall to youki attacks and irritated that his running failure was being applauded. He had reached for Bakusaiga, but restrained himself after a second's more of thought. When night came again, when they were alone, she would pay for this. In a moment more, he had resolved to continue his course of action and travel toward Bokuseno.

Once they were on the move, Fuko had come up to walk beside him, which immediately gained his wary interest. Then she had asked him how much longer it would be before they reached the Western lands, barely waiting for a reply (which he had not been planning to give) before asking if he knew the area that they were traveling through well. She had asked if there were villages nearby, and she had asked what time of year it was. She had asked about festivals, harvests, regional dishes, and the human daimyo roaming the lands. She had asked about the demon tribes in the area and how they were fairing through these "troubled times." She remembered that she had met a ghoulish youkai many years ago that fed peacefully on the dead of the battlefield, and then had asked if he knew this demon. She had described him, in minutia, down to the exact scent of the creature's ragged haori.

—In short, she had talked, and not only did she talk but she talked to _him_, saying his name before and after every other sentence, occasionally saying it twice, as in: "Sesshomaru, Sesshomaru, do you know this demon with the rotting skin and the oil-black eyes?"

Not wanting to walk alone, Rin had taken her hand and walked between them, nearly on his heels, and occasionally chimed in on the incessant chatter ("Lord Sesshomaru likes to keep where we are going a secret, Fuko-chan," "This demon sounds gross, Fuko-chan.") Jaken, of course, would not be left behind and followed much more closely than Sesshomaru liked, speaking in nearly incomprehensible grumbles about how annoying the demoness was being. For some reason, Ah-Un also chose to walk close and trod no more than three paces from his back, puffing his moist breath on the daiyoukai's hair with every step. Sesshomaru's skin had begun to crawl.

Finally, he had stopped, causing both Rin and Jaken to collide with his legs, and spun. "_Silence._"

Sparks had flown off the barrier as she regarded him with affected surprise. Then, she had smiled and said, "Your name is too long. I'm going to call you 'Shomaru."

She had dodged his reaching hand and regarded him smugly for a moment from just beyond his reach before turning and continuing down the deer trail they followed. More useless sparks flew before he'd regained the lead. His violent aura afforded him a few more feet's space from his followers—but not her, and so not Rin. The female had strutted fearlessly at his elbow and he had cursed her with his every step.

Next, he'd had to listen to an hour long conversation about himself, through which she continued to refer to him as "'Shomaru". Of course, Jaken had made odd, hacking sounds the entire time, overtly choking on his withheld words.

Rin had suggested that they be quiet so as not to annoy her lord, but Fuko had revealed readily that it was her goal. "I annoy so that he'll be forced to reconsider his own attitude towards me." On this point, the girls argued viability and semantics, both coming up with myriad reasonings to suit their cases.

Fuko: "The situation is this: he annoys me, and I can do nothing to easily stop him. This is what keeps us from being friends. I would guess that 'Shomaru is in general an annoying person, and this keeps him from having friends. But, I must say, you are the 'Shomaru expert here. In any case, my experience is that he does not respond to polite requests or light censure. So far, merely defending myself only seems to reinforce the idea that it is okay to annoy me. Beating him up is a long, arduous process and I believe that aggression only leads to more aggression. I submit to you, Rin-chan, that my only course of action is to be as annoying as possible, for the future peace and prosperity of us all, so that 'Shomaru can learn by example how it feels to be treated the way he treats people. Your counter argument?"

Rin: "Um. I don't think Lord Sesshomaru is an annoying person! And I am the Lord Sesshomaru expert! So— um. I think Lord Sesshomaru is the type of person who likes to be the leader. He is very good at being the leader. Leaders need everyone to listen to them and help them. I think if Fuko-chan would treat Lord Sesshomaru the way he likes to be treated, like a leader, he could learn by example how nice Fuko-chan is. And then he would be nice as well, because Fuko-chan is so nice. In this way, they could become friends. Um, _your_ counter argument?"

Fuko: "Ah, Rin-chan! You make a good point. But, I must disagree nonetheless. Your tactics would work if I were you, or maybe Jaken, but I am me, or rather, I am not a follower. Now, I understand the confusion, but I am _following_ 'Shomaru. I am not his _follower_. To put it another way, he is your leader, but he is my escort. What's more, he is my rival. The two tiles, leader and rival, do not overlap."

It had gone on in that strain. Rin's devotion came as no surprise, but the exact nature of Fuko's opinion had him grimly revising his plans for their courtship. She detailed exactly how she saw him—a tyrant unable to function among peers, closed off and prideful. She apparently had no fear of letting him know all this, besides. And she spelled out the current dynamic so accurately that he at least had agree on this point: "We've come to an impasse, Rin-chan. By his own word, there will be no negotiations or compromises. Without bloodshed, we both have no way to make the other do anything. So, until the status-quo changes again, this is what it's going to be."

In any case, he did not enjoy having his personality and motives dissected by a child and a female he could not discipline, so, for a while, he tuned them out. He told himself that they would reach the tree demon soon enough and he would get his revenge.

Then they had come to the pass.

"Watch, Rin-chan!"

Fuko was scaling the sheer mountain side to the right in an instant, completely ignoring the gently sloping path his had taken so much care in choosing. The female had bounded up and over a cliff and then leapt across to the other side, landing without stirring a rock or a plume of dust. As the mountains stretched higher and higher on either side, so did her feats of acrobatics become more enthusiastic. Rin had been at first concerned and then giddily entertained by the demoness' display, thrilled and shrieking at her every feinted misstep. She clapped and giggled from her perch on Ah-Un's back.

After only a few minutes, the cheers and shrieks became too much—far too much to be tolerated—and he'd turned and drove his fist into the mountain side. His strength, awesome and precise, cracked the solid stone but did not shatter it, sending a fission shooting upward to upset the rock ledge that the female ran along.

His violent action drew a gasp from Rin, but Fuko only skirted the new gap before nimbly bounding down the fifty-foot drop in two strides.

"What's the matter, Your Highness?" she asked as she alighted before the dragon beast. "Did the mountain forget to bow to you?"

Sparks had flown before he caught himself. Growling, he had squared off against her. "How can you revel in such idiotic behavior? Does it not bother you at all that you act like a wanton child?"

The barrier between her power and his shivered as she snarled, "I'd rather be a child than a psychopath!"

The ground had shaken with his rage as he'd stridden toward her. "What did you call me?"

She stuck out her tongue. "A psychopath! Crazy! One of the insanely anti-social!"

Damn, but how he had wanted to bite that offending little tongue. "You call me insane and still dare to taunt me?" He drew so near that the youki flowing off his skin threw sparks on her still-quaking barrier.

Little idiot. She had stood her ground while his rage shook the earth, face inches from his, well within his reach—and still she cocked her head, bared one fang at him, and let out a disdainful tsk.

He had pursued her through the corridors of the mountain then. Anger had swirled in his vision, fairly blinding him to anything else, except that he distinctly recalled sending Ah-Un the order to move on, down the pass and away from the spectacle he was making of himself.

The memory was more sensation than anything, but either she had leapt and he gave chase or else he had lashed out and made her leap. Whatever began it, she took the opportunity to taunt him. Her barrier had fallen immediately and the storm of their contentious youki broke over the mountain range just as quickly. She kept ahead of him, calling taunts and insults that spurned him on. They darted up and down the sheer cliffs, youki splintering the rock under their feet, their power thundering across the sky. Even as the mountain fell to shambles around them, she continued to dance on the edge of his reach, and even daring to take swipes at him when he passed too close. He had been snarling, this he knew from muscle memory, but she, she had been laughing, and the boisterous pealing reverberated over his half-memory.

But then, clear as crystal, he recalled catching her. Of course such a risky game would eventually turn against her. A falling bolder crashed into the rock face she was about to rebound off of, forcing her to cut her leapt short midair. The split second's slowing as she changed direction was enough and he barreled into her full force, tackling her into canyon wall, crumbling it on impact. In the end, he had her pinned to the deepest curvature of a crater bored into the side of the beleaguered mountain. She had thrashed in his arms, squealing, turning until they were pressed together font to font. He had buried his face in against her neck and she had shrieked, her claws dragging at his clothes as she tried to find perches with which to climb over him, "No, don't! Don't bite me, I was just playin', don't, don't, don't!"

He bit her once, smartingly, behind her jaw, but then soothed the skin with a swipe of his tongue and proceeded to nip and suck at her neck, raising welts in a trail down toward the collar of her kimono. It had been about all he could manage as she continued to struggle against him, kicking, clawing, squealing, though her screams had gained a new, hysterical edge—"No, no, no! That tickles, quit it! Sesshomaru! Quit!"

With the taste of her on his tongue, the next event he could recall with any clarity was the crumbling of the mountain pass in on itself. The shallow cave, if the crater could be called a cave, had started to collapse, the rock under their feet giving way, and she writhed right out of his arms the second her back was no longer up against a wall. He wondered sardonically if he would have kept at her tender flesh as they were buried alive, but that was neither here nor there.

The earth-splitting noise of so much stone torn asunder had drawn him out of his wild thrall. By some concert of bodily communication, they both bolted from the cave and through the hail of boulders, ricocheting back and forth among the crags as she followed him down into the valley where the rest of the group had gone.

They had stopped at the foot of the mountain and looked back at the sheer slope of rubble, piled hundreds of yards deep and thick. They had blocked the pass with their little escapade—and altered the face of the mountain.

Shocked, he had looked upon the scene of desolation and envisioned the shameful future of having his name attached to this mess. He had turned to her, just about to rebuke her for part in it, when she laughed again with the same exuberant laughter writ across the memory of the chase.

Braking form, Sesshomaru passed a wet hand over his face, wanting to wipe this memory away. The water falling against his back did nothing to ground him in the here and now

He had looked on her, with her flushed skin, bright eyes, becoming grin, her ridiculous ears flatted to her head, and her inexplicable mirth—and a chuckle escaped him. Her laughter had stopped short and she stared at him aghast, and still, laughter broke out of him. All he had been able to do was turn his back and raise a hand to stifle himself. He did not understand himself in that moment. Rage at her behavior, lust for her body, triumph from her capture, confusion because of her mirth, embarrassment at his own actions, these concepts he could understand, but he did not see anything that should have had him laughing. It had just been a feeling welling up from his muddled gut. In that moment of high, strained emotion, he had laughed long and hard, so deeply that it shook his chest.

She hadn't the sense to leave him to this new insanity. She had come around his back to look him in the face with those prying green eyes, tug at his sleeve, and ask, "Are you really laughing? Really, for real? You can laugh?" He had gripped her shoulder and firmly thrust her away from him, but she persisted, tugging more and more firmly at his sleeve. "Let me see. I want to see."

The more he swatted her hands away, the more she reached, until he caught both of her impetuous, questing hands in his, gasping, "Stop, enough!"

Her eyes were incredibly wide at she looked up at him. "Oh! Wow. That's… pretty good!"

He had shaken his head, trying to think, trying to breathe without laughing.

She had taken that as some sort of response. "Your smile. Is that even a smile? Whatever, it looks good on you!"

It was such an odd compliment, so clumsy. It was unworthy of his reflection; it shouldn't have affected him, but it had. There had been that odd wrenching in his gut that unsettled him more than his still spasming chest. He had slid his hand down her arm, keeping contact until he had her shoulder in hand again. He knew how easily she could squirm away.

"Yeah, you should totally smile more often, 'Shomaru," she had continued. "You might actually become a likable person. Really, wow. Look at you, playing and laughing all in a one hour period! Not glaring at all! Doesn't this feel better than being a jerk-face all the time? This could be a whole new beginning for you. What a bright future ahead—urk!"

"Stop _talking_." He had choked her with one hand, thumb over her windpipe, pleased to find that her throat was slender enough for this to be possible. A smile still curled his lips as he had whispered to her, "You are trying to drive me insane. I won't let you. I won't kill you, but oh, there are better revenges than murder."

One hand trapped, the other instinctively trying to loosen his vice grip on her neck, she gasped out, "You're crazy!"

He had dragged her closer, off of her feet, and ignoring her painful kicks he continued in the same quiet tone, "There are consequences to your actions, girl. The power you think you have over me, it will be turned against you. It is you who needs to prepare yourself now." He dropped her. "Tonight. Tonight, I will humble you."

As he had walked away from her, he heard her hiss, "Absolutely crazy!"

That was hours ago. Since then, they had rejoined the rest of the party and travelled in relative peace and quiet. He had kept his eyes trained ahead of him, ready to ignore whatever new annoyances she threw his way, but she chose to hang back and have a whispered conversation with Rin. He ignored that as well, even when she drew Jaken into it.

When they had come to the river, he left them to search for a place of meditation, this place—where the water could pound the tension from his shoulders and cool his hot head.

But that hadn't worked. Images of her, of their battles both somatic and locutionary, of the conflict inside him between the self-possessed daiyoukai he knew he was and the unfamiliar maniac that he was becoming. A maniac who could not help but snap, snarl, and salivate at this impetuous little female. His barely-suppressed youki heated the water around him to the point where the steam out competed the mist.

A laugh, her laugh, rang out, immediately catching his ear and all of his attention. He dropped his hand, opened his eyes, and saw from his great vantage point that, about a mile downstream, Fuko was accompanying Rin in yet another bath.

"She's doing this to taunt me," he said, watching as she scooped the nude child up and flung her into the river amidst jubilant shrieks. The demoness leapt in after her, bare from her ridiculous ears to her claw-tipped toes.

Steam roll off of him in greater waves as he watched them frolic, but he was not mindless in his agitation. He knew, distantly, that she was not aware that he was watching and so could not be provoking him purposefully, but that hardly seemed to matter in the face of all she had done before.

Losing all pretense of meditation, the daiyoukai leaned forward indolently on his unturned knee and long silver bangs washed down over his right eye. He traced with covetous eyes the curves that the female so thoughtlessly put on display. He could taste her skin on his tongue again, and regretted that the welts he left on her neck had healed so quickly. Even from this distance, his keen eyes would have been able to pick them out. But, there would be more welts, and in more interesting places than her neck.

It was another hour before they finished with their playful splashing and got down to the business of cleaning themselves, and then they spent another hour after that wearing their kosode loosely around them and grooming each other on the pebbled shore. During that time, the steam billowing from his skin lessened and lessened, belaying his increasing hunger. Though thoughts of pleasure still swam through his mind, his need for dominance and revenge started to assert itself and so his thoughts began to achieve a certain diabolical order. By the time the girls stood, stretched, and began to follow the ever faithful Ah-Un back to where Jaken waited, Sesshomaru was dry, dressed, and his amber eyes shone with molten resolution.

It was nightfall when he came for her and the sky was pitch black. His movements were smooth and languid, and a certain amount of frost laced his gesture as he signaled her from the shadow of the trees and touched her aura lightly with his. She was on the edge of camp waiting, or at least keeping watch, and she complied with his summons in wary silence. Rin and Jaken slept, the first in her bed roll, the second huddled around his staff by the fire. Only Ah-Un saw them go and the dragon was left knowing that he was to watch out for the others.

They reached the small glade he had scouted out ahead of time shortly, since it was nearby. When he stopped at is center, she stopped at its edge.

"Isn't this a little close to camp?"

Sesshomaru turned. It seemed that she had just been asking for the sake of it. Her weapon was leaned against a tree and she had already undone the bow of her obi. He watched as she folded the long strip of clothe over her arm. She glanced up and lifted her brows at him, silently questioning his failure to go to the other side of the clearing and disarm himself. Instead, he moved back toward her. She paused in the act of removing her kimono to eye him quizzically as he rested his swords next to her spear, and then went through the motions of removing his armor. Though he gave the appearance of paying her no attention, his senses were trained on her and he heard her near-silent uncertain hum before she took her eyes off him, turned away slightly, and slipped out of her kimono. He picked up the twitch of her ears at the rustle of his silk and furrow of her brow. In a second, she made that small uncertain noise as she crouched to remove her boots. Sesshomaru smirked as pulled off his socks, pleased to find that all he had had to do was remove his boots to get her to take off hers.

Because of the array of buckles and fasteners securing her boots, by the time she looked up again, he had shed multiple layers and stood bare-chested above her.

Her uncertain hum became somewhat articulate at the sight, "Um?"

But he remained aloof and walked back to the center of the glade without addressing her concern. He took the sensation of her gaze on his back as proof that he was affecting her. Even after she approached a moment later, he did not turn or acknowledge her.

Finally, the silence got to her. "Tsk, what's this all about, then? Are we going to spar or not?"

He turned. She was several steps away, much too far for what he had planned. This did not daunt him. She was fast, but his predatory past had taught him that a thing which could not be chased down could be trapped instead.

The annoyance in her eyes was completely phased out by confusion when he put out his hand, palm up. She stared at it for a second, then flicked her eyes back up to his. "What?" She huffed. "Change your mind about 'humbling' me?"

He suppressed his smile and quirked his fingers, inviting her to find out.

Eventually, she began to drift closer, side-stepping, sideling, making him turn to follow her movements, until finally she reached out and touched his palm with her fingertips. Her youki brushed his curiously, but he kept himself tightly in check. He had withheld himself from her since the mountain pass incident. His patience was not so spent that he would waste his efforts and snatch at her now, so he waited until she put her hand in his properly before he wrapped his long fingers around hers and drew her closer.

She had no reason to let him pull her nearly flush against him, but Sesshomaru did not question that she allowed it. Instead, he dared more, slowly taking her other hand, and when she only put up a token resistance, spoke low, modulated tones so as to put her at ease, "Shall we sit?"

"I'd rather not." And yet, she allowed herself to be pulled down as he folded his legs underneath him. "Ah, Sesshomaru," She fidgeted on her knees, only vaguely approaching the proper seiza position in her agitation, "what is this? I thought you were mad? Don't you want to, you know, fight? He-ey! Are you petting me? Don't… I don't like you, cause you're rude, so stop. Listen, if we're not going to spar, then I should—"

"You talk too much."

Her eyes narrowed in anger immediately, but with the hand that had crept up her arm to rest on the back of her neck, he swept her up into a kiss.

Everything he had been withholding since the first time she challenged him poured forth, as hot and uncontrollable as a volcanic eruption. The world and his plans for it fell away completely, swallowed up by sensation and excitement. Her probing tongue and the muffled sounds coming from her throat didn't reach beyond the roaring in his ears. He could almost believe he was still sitting under that damnable waterfall, but she tasted and felt far too good to be mere fantasy. The satin softness of her mouth combined with pulse and pull of their youki intoxicated him, and he was only vaguely aware that he was pressing her backwards.

Sesshomaru tumbled Fuko onto her back with a hand fisted in her hair to keep her mouth locked to his and a knee wedged between her thighs. The kiss only fueled his hunger for more. He slid the other hand around her waist, smoothing the cloth over her skin before running his touch to the front, where her kosode was tied closed. He loosened the belt gradually as he took from her, consuming her mouth, taking her squirming, her muffled groans, her pressing hands and the sting of her claws in his shoulders as tribute.

Just as he was beginning to grow lightheaded, Fuko yanked her head to the side and gasped for air. He drew back slightly and was surprised to find himself breathing heavily. He glanced down at his partner to be sure his eagerness hadn't thrown off his intent and saw that her eyes were closed as if in a dream. The sight of her flushed and panting underneath him sent another surge of arousal through him, but it swelled his ego just as well as other parts. Languorously, he buried his nose in the crook of her neck and took in her scent on a long inhale. He was not at all surprised at the delicious musk of arousal. Hints of it had been spurring him on through that breath-taking kiss. A growl of pleasure rumbled out of him on his exhale.

Under his fingertips, he felt her velvety ears twitch and jerk at the sound. "Wh-what?" She sounded so bewildered, so nervous. He had known that she would be less experienced, but this was remarkable. A throaty chuckle welled up from his chest; it was cute. But then her arms began to tense again, putting an unwanted pressure on his shoulders. Not cute. If she thought he was finished, she was sorely mistaken. He would not be satisfied until she was begging for it.

His first impulse was to distract her with another kiss, but he needed to keep his wits about him. Instead, he gave a final tug to the ties of her kosode and slipped his hand inside the loosened folds. She gasped and tried to wiggle away when he touched her stomach. "Be still," he commanded, and then nipped her neck in reprimand. There was a quickening in her aura that he recognized as annoyance and her claws dug hard into his shoulders, but whatever retort was on her tongue came out garbled. He'd cupped her sex just as she began to speak.

_What's this?_ Sesshomaru frowned against her temple, trying to identify the swath of thin fabric under his hand. He could feel her dampness through it, but the edges clung so tightly to her skin that he hesitated to try and catch them with his claws. The wet heat of her under his fingers was too tempting. He took the most expedient route, hooking his claws in and giving a firm tug.

The strange cloth shredded like tissue paper, and the female under him howled as if wounded, "My panties!"

A struggle ensued, or at least began again in earnest. She lunged up, half way out of his arms, and though he tried to adjust his grip, he only caught fistfuls of her clothes. He yanked her down by them, and her kosode slipped off her shoulders and effectively snared her arms behind her back. He was momentarily distracted by the sight of her breasts bound in another strange garment and she brought one knee up between them. In a second, he was at an arm's length, with only his grip on her clothes keeping them together and only her foot planted on his chest keeping them apart.

"My panties! They're ruined! What's the big idea, why would you do this?!"

He was still fairly distracted. "Why have you bound your breasts?"

"Bound my—let go of me! Hentai! S-stop looking!" Her other foot came up and kicked him in the jaw, turning his head away.

Her panic dominated her aura, battering his senses like a psychic scream. Stunned by her behavior, he tried to rein her in with his mokomoko, but the second it slithered up her torso, she snarled and snapped at it.

"Damn it, stop your squirming! Calm yourself!"

"Hentai! Get off! Get OFF!"

They strained against each other and it was her clothing that stared to give. At the sound of rending fabric, she shrieked, "My clothes! Hentai! Let go of me!"

"Stop fighting this! You want me, I can smell it—"

"Let _go!_"

The fabric gave and she was gone in a second, leaving him with tatters of cloth, the sting of rejection, and an abiding confusion as to what exactly had just happened.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

In the next instant, Fuko was back at camp, though she hardly realized she had traveled there. She froze before the low embers of the fire, clutching her kimono, spear and boots like a security blanket, and then darted past the slumped and sleeping Jaken to where Rin rested against the warm, inert mass of Ah-Un. She stared down at the girl for a second, trying to think through the panic. What was she here to do? Was she going to wake Rin up? To do what? Tell her what happened? Demand an explanation?

How could this little girl have known her guardian was a pervert?

Fuko gave her head a furious shake, hoping that the memory of his slick tongue and groping hands would fall out of her ears. No such luck. She could still feel them.

She began pin-balling, pacing back and forth, diagonally, across, and at half-lengths. If one could see the rushing form, they would know this display was one-hundred percent panic. Even without seeing, Ah-Un got the sense of it and grew increasingly concerned at this sudden activity.

Her face was lined with anxiety, nose wrinkled and brows low. What could she do? Where could she go to escape? He was her guide. She was so close to her answers, her ever-lengthening quest nearing a critical turning point or even a point of completion. Could she abandon this path and start looking for another?

She shivered, spine first. Sesshomaru (that pervert!) would be here any minute. Fuko saw his face flash before her eyes and flinched away from the burning intensity. Lust. It was decidedly predatory, completely unforgiving. What could he possibly want from her? Why? They disliked each other, didn't they?! How could he want _that_!?

And the way he had touched her, it made her feel strange, think strange things. She didn't want that, did she?

Fuko prayed. It wasn't really a conscious decision, but then, so little was. At that moment, she prayed very hard for a way out.

And like manna from the heavens, a shard of her own youki returned to her from on high and slid into place like a dagger into flesh. The pain was immediate and paralyzing. She stumbled over her own feet and then caught herself, now clear-headed and filled with purpose. Shippo the young kitsune was in mortal danger.

Her youki exploded outward, indigo-tinged winds rushing up like a cyclone. She was breaking herself down, coalescing again into her true form, but even as her face elongated, her bones cracked, and her spine popped and lengthened, she was able to reach into the tattered sleeve of her disintegrating kosode.

Jaken and Ah-Un were slammed with the force of her change, one jolted from dream to nightmare and then gradually into consciousness, the other purely shocked and frightened by what he'd witnessed. The ryu beast leapt up, pawing at the air in his fright. Rin was rudely awakened, which tends to happen when one's pillow suddenly flies away. Jaken flopped to his side and then rolled to his feet. Eyes still closed, he brandished his staff and yelled.

When they opened their eyes, Fuko was gone. Though they didn't see it in the low light, shards of jadeite littered the ground where she once stood.

* * *

**To be continued…**

**Chapter X: Inuyasha, the Wounded Boy **


End file.
